• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.406-414
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• 2001

Ultrasonic guided waves were explored to apply them to the long range inspection of polyethylene coated steel gas pipes. The steel pipes have such dimensions as 190.7mm inside diameter and 5.3mm thickness. The outside surface of the pipe is coated by a polyethylene layer of $1.9{\pm}0.5mm$ thickness. Non-axisymmetric guided waves were excited on the outside surface of the polyethylene coated pipe by using a 0.5MHz transducer with a variable angle shoe. Frequency and phase velocity tuning was used to find optimum guided wave modes for the inspection. The dispersive characteristics of the modes were analyzed in time-frequency representation obtained by short time Fourier transforms. Sample results were presented for artificial defects such as wall thinning and hole.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.570-578
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• 2009

Excitation and propagation of guided waves are very complex problems in pipes due to their dispersive nature. Pipes are commonly used in the oil, chemical or nuclear industry and hence must be inspected regularly to ensure continued safe operation. The normal mode expansion(NME) method is given for the amplitude with which any propagating waveguide mode is generated in the pipes by applied surface tractions. Numerical results are calculated based on the NME method using different sources, i.e., non-axisymmetric partial loading and quasi-axisymmetric loading sources. The sum of amplitude coefficients for 0~nineth order of the harmonic modes are calculated based on the NME method and the dispersion curves in pipes. The superimposed total field which is namely the angular profile, varies with propagating distance and circumferential angle. This angular profile of guided waves provides information for setting the transducer position to find defects in pipes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2011

An electromagnetic acoustic transducer(EMAT) is a non-contact transducer which can transmit the ultrasonic guided waves into specimens without couplant. And it can easily generate specific guided waves such as SH(shear horizontal) or Lamb waves by altering the design of coil and magnet. In this study, the SH wave, which is generated by EMAT, has been applied to estimate the thickness-reduction in a steel plate. Especially, the interesting feature of the dispersive behavior in selected wave modes is used to detect the thickness-reduction. Experimental results show that the reduction-level can be quantified by the measurement of the group velocity of the wave which passes though the thinning area.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.142-150
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• 2004

A preliminary study of the behavior of ultrasonic guided wave mode in a pipe using a comb transducer for maintenance inspection of power plant facilities has been verified experimentally. The mode identification has been carried out in a pipe using the time-frequency analysis methods such as the wavelet transform(WT) and the short time Fourier transform (STFT), compared with theoretically calculated group velocity dispersion curves for longitudinal and flexural modes. The results are in good agreement with analytical predictions and show the effectiveness of using the time-frequency analysis method to identify the individual modes. It was found out that the longitudinal mode(0,1) is less affected by mode conversion compared with the other modes. Therefore, L(0,1) is selected as an optimal mode for the evaluation of the surface defect in a pipe.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.233-240
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated the dispersion characteristics of guided waves in thin films. Dispersion curves are essential for understanding not only the behavior of ultrasonic waves, but also the mechanical properties of thin films. Matrix techniques are presented for modeling ultrasonic waves in multilayered structures before being used to calculate the dispersion curves for Al-steel and Al-composite specimens. When compared with the dispersion curves obtained using the commercial program (Disperse), the dispersion curves generated from the transfer matrix method show its validity. These developed methods are used to obtain dispersion curves for Al thin films deposited on a Si substrate. The resulting dispersion curves enable observation of both dispersive and non-dispersive behavior for the guided waves, depending on the thickness of the thin films.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2003

Since the scale in pipes reduces the flow rate, a quantitative evaluation of the scale is essential for the proper maintenance of pipes. Guided waves were employed to estimate the amount of scale in water supplying pipes. Using variable angle wedge, several modes of guided waves wire generated and their propagation charcteristics along the pipes with stale were analyzed. It was experimentally observed that the amplitude of F(M,2) modes at $f{\times}d=1.5MHz\;mm$ decreased significantly with increasing amount of scale. The present study showed that F(M,2) modes were optima) to evaluate the scale in water supplying pipes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.307-314
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• 2004

A circumferential guided wave method was developed to detect the axial crack on the bent feeder pipe. Dispersion curves of circumferential guided waves were calculated as a function of curvature of the pipe. In the case of thin plate, i.e. infinite curvature, as the frequency increases, the $S_0$ and $A_0$ mode coincide and eventually become Rayleigh wave mode. In the case of pipe, however, as the curvature increases, the lowest modes do not coincide even in the high frequencies. Based on the analysis, a rocking technique using angle beam transducer was applied to detect an axial defect in the bent region of PHWR feeder pipe. Based on the analysis of experimenal data for artificial notches, the vibration modes of each signal were identified. It was found that the notches with the depth of )0% of wall thickness can be detected with the method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.229-251
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• 2012

Guided waves have shown a great potential for structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. In contrast to traditional non-destructive testing (NDT) methodologies, a key element of SHM approaches is the high process of automation. The monitoring system should decide autonomously whether the host structure is intact or not. A basic requirement for the realization of such a system is that the sensors are permanently installed on the host structure. Thus, baseline measurements become available that can be used for diagnostic purposes, i.e., damage detection, localization, etc. This paper contributes to guided wave-based inspection in anisotropic materials for SHM purposes. Therefore, computational strategies are described for both, the solution of the complex equations for wave propagation analysis in composite materials based on exact elasticity theory and the popular global matrix method, as well as the underlying equations of two active damage localization algorithms for anisotropic structures. The result of the global matrix method is an angular and frequency dependent wave velocity characteristic that is used subsequently in the localization procedures. Numerical simulations and experimental investigations through time-delay measurements are carried out in order to validate the proposed theoretical model. An exemplary case study including the calculation of dispersion curves and damage localization is conducted on an exemplary unidirectional composite structure where the ultrasonic signals processed in the localization step are simulated with the spectral element method. The proposed study demonstrates the capabilities of the proposed algorithms for accurate damage localization in anisotropic structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.367-373
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• 2011

Guided waves inspection techniques that are different with inspection technique by bulk waves are widely used in pipe line evaluation due to advantages of long distance inspection. However, most of pipe lines at industrial fields are buried and/or coated. In this case, due to the attenuation effect from soil and/or coating material, there are a lot of difficulty on inspection by conventional ultrasonic technique. In this paper, guided waves propagating patterns are calculated with respect to excitation mode by Normal Mode Expansion(NME). Guided waves patterns based on excited by single transducer and guided wave focusing technique have employed to analyze focusing pattern on a pipe. A longitudinal mode and high order flexural modes are used with various number of transducers to determine sensitivity. Guided waves energy excited by multi transducer with focusing algorithm was successfully focused at a desired point.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2017

In the present work, the effect of hygrothermal aging on the glass fibre and epoxy matrix interface has been investigated by destructive and non-destructive techniques. The glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite laminates were prepared using Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion Molding (VARIM) technique and the specimens were immersed in simulated seawater, followed by quantitative measurement. Besides this, the tensile tests of GFRP specimens revealed a general decrease in the properties with increasing aging time. Also, exposed specimens were characterized by a non-destructive ultrasonic guided Lamb wave propagation technique. The experimental results demonstrate a correlation between the drop in ultrasonic voltage amplitude and fall in tensile strength with increasing time of immersion. Hence, the comparison of the transmitted guided wave signal of healthy vis-a-vis specimens subjected to different extents of hygrothermal aging facilitated performance evaluation of GFRP composites.