• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.30-38
• /
• 2023

As the number of old buildings subject to safety inspection increases, the burden on designated institutions and management entities that are responsible for safety management is increasing. Accordingly, when selecting buildings subject to safety inspection, appropriate safety inspection standards and appropriate technology are essential. The current safety inspection standards for old buildings give low scores when it is difficult to confirm damage such as cracks in structural members due to finishing materials. This causes the evaluation results to be underestimated regardless of the actual safety status of the structure, resulting in an increase in the number of aging buildings subject to safety inspection. Accordingly, this study proposed a thermal imaging technique, a non-destructive and non-contact inspection, to detect cracks inside finishing materials. A concrete specimen was produced to observe cracks inside the finishing material using a thermal imaging camera, and thermal image data was measured by exciting a heat source on the concrete surface and cracked area. As a result of the measurement, it was confirmed that it was possible to observe cracks inside the finishing material with a width of 0.3mm, 0.5mm, and 0.7mm, but it was difficult to determine the cracks due to uneven temperature distribution due to surface peeling and peeling of the wallpaper. Accordingly, as a result of performing data analysis by deriving the amplitude and phase difference of the thermal image data, clear crack measurement was possible for 0.5mm and 0.7mm cracks. Based on this study, we hope to increase the efficiency of field application and analysis through the development of technology using big data-based deep learning in the diagnosis of internal crack damage in finishing materials.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.75-82
• /
• 2007

As one of the main support systems, rock bolts play a crucial role in the reinforcement of tunnels. Numerical and experimental studies using a transmission method of ultrasonic guided waves are performed to evaluate the integrity of rock bolts encapsulated by grouting paste. Numerical simulations using "DISPERSE" are carried out for the selection of the optimal experimental setup, i.e. non-destructive testing (NDT) system of the rock bolt. Based on results of the numerical simulation, the calculated frequency range for NDT testing is between 20kHz and 70kHz with the first longitudinal L(1) mode. Laboratory transmission tests are performed by attaching the piezo electric sensor at the tip of the rock bolt before embedding. Both of analytical and experimental results show that the amplitude of signals as well as the wave velocity increases with increase in the defect ratio of grouting paste. The defect in grouting paste means that the space around the rock bolt is not fully filled with the grouting paste. Experimental results also show that the increase of the wave velocity is more sensitive to the defect ratio increase than that of the amplitude. This study demonstrates that the transmission technique of ultrasonic guided waves may be a valuable tool in the evaluation of the rock bolt integrity.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.367-372
• /
• 2018

Defects in aging infrastructures such as pre-stressed concrete bridges and cable bridges can cause a collapse of the entire structure. Defects, however, are often located inside of the structures that they are not visible from the outside. For example, in PSC bridges, because reinforcement steels are encased by exterior covers, corrosion and void on the reinforcement steel cannot be detected with a visual inspection. Therefore, in this paper, a new non-destructive evaluation(NDE) method that can detect defects inside of structures is presented. The new method utilizes sending of electrical signals, a method often utilized in electrical engineering to detect any discontinuities on power cables. In order to confirm the applicability and accuracy of the method, some experiments were conducted in the laboratory. And to overcome the hardship of conducting experiments on real structures due to their enormous size, simualtions were conudcted using a commercial program, COMSOL. The results of the experiments were analyzed and compared to confirm the accuracy of the simualtions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.39-44
• /
• 2019

Radiation safety management is being considered very important since radioactive isotopes such as Co-60 and Ir-192 are widely used in fields such as non-destructive test(NDT). In this study, the applicability of Mercury(II) Iodide($HgI_2$) source for tracing system was evaluated. To make sure the unit cell sensor's reliability, we evaluated the electrical properties of the sensor made with $HgI_2$, and then position dependence of the sensor was analyzed and compared with the dose distribution from the planning system. As a result of the evaluation, high reliability of the sensor was shown through the linearity of R-sq > 0.990 and reproducibility of CV < 0.015. In the position dependence evaluation, the maximum value was measured at the isocenter of the sensor and gradually decreased according to the distance. However, the dose distribution data from the planning system was turned out that has difference with that of the sensor up to 30%. This seems to come from the difference between single-point measuring based planning system and area measuring based sensor.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.11-20
• /
• 2022

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of the shear wave tomography technology as a non-destructive testing method to evaluate the debonding between the track concrete layer (TCL) and the hydraulically stabilized based course (HSB) of concrete slab tracks for the Korea high-speed railway system. A commercially available multi-channel shear wave measurement device (MIRA) is used to evaluate debonding defects in full-scaled mock-up test specimen that was designed and constructed according to the Rheda 200 system. A part of the mock-up specimen includes two artificial debonding defects with a length and a width of 400mm and thicknesses of 5mm and 10mm, respectively. The tomography images obtained by a MIRA on the surface of the concrete specimens are effective for visualizing the debonding defects in concrete. In this study, a simple image processing method is proposed to suppress the noisy signals reflected from the embedded items (reinforcing steel, precast sleeper, insert, etc.) in TCL, which significantly improves the readability of debonding defects in shear wave tomography images. Results show that debonding maps constructed in this study are effective for visualizing the spatial distribution and the depths of the debondiing defects in the railway concrete slab specimen.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.32-38
• /
• 2024

In the case of apartment building, it is difficult to conduct non-destructive testing due to the actual presence of people and the dust and noise generated during the core test, so inspections are performed each time in the common area and underground parking lot, and the tests are conducted on the finishing material rather than on the concrete surface due to low-cost orders. As the process progresses, poor inspection is inevitable. In addition, the proposed formulas for strength estimation have large fluctuations depending on the differences in test conditions and environments, and even if they show the same measured value, the deviation between each proposed formula is large, making it difficult to accurately estimate strength, making it difficult to use. Accordingly, we would like to select finishing materials mainly used in apartment complexes and compare and evaluate the compressive strength of concrete according to the type of finishing material by using non-destructive testing methods directly on the finishing materials without removing the finishing materials. The reliability evaluation results of the estimated compressive strength of concrete using the ultrasonic velocity method according to the type of finishing material are as follows. The error rate between the estimated compressive strength and compressive strength derived through the ultrasonic velocity method shows a wide range of variation, ranging from 21.83% to 58.89%. The effect of the presence or absence of finishing materials on the estimated compressive strength was found to be insignificant. Accordingly, it is necessary to select more types of finishing materials and study ultrasonic velocity methods according to the presence or absence of finishing materials, and to study estimation techniques that can increase reliability.

• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.27-39
• /
• 2006

Many real world cases in material failure analysis do not follow perfectly the normal distribution. Forcing of the normality assumption may lead to inaccurate predictions and poor product quality. We examine the failure process of the internal bond (IB or tensile strength) of medium density fiberboard (MDF). We propose a forced censoring technique that closer fits the lower tails of strength distributions and better estimates extremely smaller percentiles, which may be valuable to continuous quality improvement initiatives. Further analyses are performed to build an accelerated common-shaped Weibull model for different product types using the $JMP^{(R)}$ Survival and Reliability platform. In this paper, a forced censoring technique is implemented for the first time as a software module, using $JMP^{(R)}$ Scripting Language (JSL) to expedite data processing, which is crucial for real-time manufacturing settings. Also, we use JSL to automate the task of fitting an accelerated Weibull model and testing model homogeneity in the shape parameter. Finally, a package script is written to readily provide field engineers customized reporting for model visualization, parameter estimation, and percentile forecasting. Our approach may be more accurate for product conformance evaluation, plus help reduce the cost of destructive testing and data management due to reduced frequency of testing. It may also be valuable for preventing field failure and improved product safety even when destructive testing is not reduced by yielding higher precision intervals at the same confidence level.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.106-113
• /
• 2013

One of feasible non-destructivity test methods for evaluation of concrete permeability is the measurement of surface resistivity. But the application to steel fiber-reinforced concrete has been limited because mis-evaluation could be caused by the steel fibers in concrete. In this study, the effect of fiber distribution on surface electrical resistivity of steel fiber-reinforced concrete was investigated through experimental program. Resistivity was measured three times on four surfaces in three rectangular and circular specimens with 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% steel fibers by volume and compared each other. The results obtained from circular specimens were consistent compared to those from rectangular specimens. And the results demonstrated that the effect of fiber distribution on surface resistivity was not significant compared to that of mixing ratio of steel fibers. In conclusion, this non-destructive testing method using measurement of surface resistivity could be used for SFRC within 0.5% steel fibers by volume.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.312-317
• /
• 2013

Purpose: Conventional methods used to evaluate seeds viability are destructive, time consuming, and require the use of chemicals, which are not feasible to implement to process plant in seed industry. In this study, the effectiveness of Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy to differentiate between viable and nonviable watermelon seeds was investigated. Methods: FT-NIR reflectance spectra of both viable and non-viable (aging) seeds were collected in the range of 4,000 - 10,000 $cm^{-1}$ (1,000 - 2,500 nm). To differentiate between viable and non-viable seeds, a multivariate classification model was developed with partial least square discrimination analysis (PLS-DA). Results: The calibration and validation set derived from the PLS-DA model classified viable and non-viable seeds with 100% accuracy. The beta coefficient of PLS-DA, which represented spectral difference between viable and non-viable seeds, showed that change in the chemical component of the seed membrane (such as lipids and proteins) might be responsible for the germination ability of the seeds. Conclusions: The results demonstrate the possibility of using FT-NIR spectroscopy to separate seeds based on viability, which could be used in the development of an online sorting technique.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.102 no.1
• /
• pp.90-96
• /
• 2013

This study was conducted to investigate a stability trend within 6 above average and 4 blow average erosion control dams, which were selected by The Korean Association of Soil and Water Conservation and were built in 1990s in Gyeonggi and Gangwon Province. The study was aimed to measure rebound hardness of upstream face, flood way and downstream face from those dams selected by using 'Concrete Test Hammer'. The main purposes of the study are selection of compression strength prediction equation and scope of wavelength, which successfully demonstrate non-destructive test results for erosion control dams. There is an opportunity to increase disaster prevention ability when stability vulnerability of concrete erosion control dam is detected in a timely manner. Results of the compression strength investigation express that there is a consistency with visual inspection of stability that has been processed by The Korean Association of Soil and Water Conservation. We concluded that a prediction equation, which was developed by Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ), shows highest suitability in Korean erosion control dams when stability investigation is performed. The detailed criteria for the test result are 'stable', 'detail inspection required' and 'poor' for over 300 $kgf/cm^2$, 250~300 $kgf/cm^2$ and below 250 $kgf/cm^2$ respectively. Standards for stability of Korean erosion control dam and a compression strength prediction equation (that corresponds to the standards of the stability) should be established on the basis of chronological data of erosion control dam compression strength. Systematical approach for stability inspection that carries out remodeling or repair when problem on erosion control structures are detected through visual inspection and simple stability test, is necessary for the future disaster prevention.