• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.5-14
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• 2016

The leakage of water under sewer pipelines is one of main sources of sinkholes in urban areas. We performed laboratory model tests to investigate the presence of cavities using impact-echo method, which is a nondestructive test method. To simulate a concrete sewer pipe, a thin concrete plate was built and placed over container filled with sand. The cavity was modeled as an extruded polystyrene foam box. Two sets of tests were performed, one over sand and the other on cavity. A new impact device was developed to apply a consistent high frequency impact load on the concrete plate, thereby increasing the reliability of the test procedure. The frequency and transient characteristics of the measured reflected waveforms were analyzed via fast Fourier transform and short time Fourier spectrum. It was shown that the shapes of Fourier spectra are very similar to one another, and therefore cannot be used to predict the presence of cavity. A new index, termed resonance duration, is defined to record the time of vibration exceeding a prescribed intensity. The results showed that the resonance duration is a more effective parameter for predicting the presence of a cavity. A value of the resonance period was proposed to estimate the presence of cavity. Further studies using various soil types and field tests are warranted to validate the proposed approach.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.275-281
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• 2004

Socket weldment used to change the flow direction of fluid nay have flaws such as lack of fusion and cracks. Liquid penetrant testing or Radiography testing have been applied as NDT methods for flaw detection of the socket weldment. But it is difficult to detect the flaw inside of the socket weldment with these methods. In order to inspect the flaws inside the socket weldment, a ultrasonic testing method is established and a ultrasonic transducer and automated ultrasonic testing system are developed for the inspection. The automated ultrasonic testing system is based on the portable personal computer and operated by the program based Windows 98 or 2000. The system has a pulser/receiver, 100MHz high speed A/D board, and basic functions of ultrasonic flaw detector using the program. For the automated testing, motion controller board of ISA interface type is developed to control the 4-axis scanner and a real time iC-scan image of the automated testing is displayed on the monitor. A flaws with the size of less than 1mm in depth are evaluated smaller than its actual site in the testing, but the flaws larger than 1mm appear larger than its actual size on the contrary. This tendency is shown to be increasing as the flaw size increases. h reliable and objective testing results are obtained with the developed system, so that it is expected that it can contribute to safety management and detection of repair position of pipe lines of nuclear power plants and chemical plants.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.368-375
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• 2013

Failure of small bore piping welds is a recurring problem at nuclear power plants. And the socket weld cracking in small bore piping has caused unplanned plant shutdowns for repair and high economic impact on the plants. Consequently, early crack detection, including the detection of manufacturing defects, is of the utmost importance. Until now, the surface inspection methods has been applied according to ASME Section XI requirements. But the ultrasonic inspection as a volumetric method is also applying to enforce the inspection requirement. However, the conventional manual ultrasonic inspection techniques are used to detect service induced fatigue cracks. And there was uncertainty on manual ultrasonic inspection because of limited access to the welds and difficulties with contact between the ultrasonic probe and the OD(outer diameter) surface of small bore piping. In this study, phased array ultrasonic inspection technique is applied to increase inspection speed and reliability. To achieve this object, the 3.5 MHz phased array ultrasonic transducer are designed and fabricated. The manually encoded scanner was also developed to enhance contact conditions and maintain constant signal quality. Additionally inspection system is configured and inspection procedure is developed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.84-89
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• 2006

A laser ultrasonic inspection system is a non-contact inspection device which generates and measures ultrasounds by using laser beams. A laser ultrasonic inspection system provides a high measurement resolution because the ultrasonic signal generated by a pulse laser beam has a wide-band spectrum and the ultrasonic signal is measured from a small focused spot of a measuring laser beam. In this paper, we have investigated the detection techniques of a surface-breaking crack by using the laser ultrasonic surface waves. A crack acts as a low pass filter whose cut-off frequency is lowered in proportion to the depth of a crack. And, the center frequency value of a spectrum is decreased in proportion to the depth of a crack. In this paper, we extracted the crack information by using the frequency attenuation from the normalized transfer function spectrum of a surface-breaking crack. Also, we effectively measured the crack depth by using the decreasing value of the center frequency from a crack passed ultrasonic signal. The proposed measuring techniques of crack depths provided more precise information than the amplitude measuring technique.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.211-228
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• 2023

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys are commonly used to monitor embankments, which is a nondestructive geophysical method. The results of GPR surveys can be complex, depending on the situation, and data processing and interpretation are subject to expert experiences, potentially resulting in false detection. Additionally, this process is time-intensive. Consequently, various studies have been undertaken to detect cavities in GPR survey data using deep learning methods. Deep-learning-based approaches require abundant data for training, but GPR field survey data are often scarce due to cost and other factors constaining field studies. Therefore, in this study, a deep- learning-based model was developed for embankment GPR survey cavity detection using data augmentation strategies. A dataset was constructed by collecting survey data over several years from the same embankment. A you look only once (YOLO) model, commonly used in computer vision for object detection, was employed for this purpose. By comparing and analyzing various strategies, the optimal data augmentation approach was determined. After initial model development, a stepwise process was employed, including box clustering, transfer learning, self-ensemble, and model ensemble techniques, to enhance the final model performance. The model performance was evaluated, with the results demonstrating its effectiveness in detecting cavities in embankment GPR survey data.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.75-91
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• 2023

In this study, we explore the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) for the nondestructive survey of subsurface conduits, focusing on the challenges posed by multichannel environments. A key concern is the shadow regions created by conduits, which significantly impact survey results. The shadow regions, which are influenced by conduit position and diameter, hinder signal propagation, thereby making detection within these regions challenging. Using finite-difference time-domain numerical analysis, we examined the characteristics of conduit signals, which typically manifest in hyperbolic patterns. Particularly, we investigated three conduit arrangements: horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. Automatic gain control was applied to amplify the signals, enabling the analysis of variations in shadow regions and signal characteristics for each arrangement. In the horizontal arrangement, the proximity of the two conduits resulted in the emergence of a new hyperbolic pattern between the existing conduits. In the vertical arrangement, the lower conduit could be detected using hyperbolic signals on either side, but the detection was challenging when the upper conduit diameter exceeded that of the lower conduit. In the diagonal arrangement, signal characteristics varied based on the position of shadow regions relative to the detection range of the equipment. Asymmetrical signal patterns were observed when the shadow regions fell within the detection range, whereas the signals of the two conduits were minimally impacted when the shadow regions were outside the detection range. This study provides vital insights into accurately detecting and characterizing subsurface multichannel conduits using GPR-a significant contribution to the field of subsurface exploration and management.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.3-9
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• 2007

With a growing concern about the state of infrastructure worldwide, the demand for the development of reliable nondestructive testing techniques (NDT) is ever increasing. Among possible NDT techniques, microwave method is proven to be effective in fast and non-contact inspection of concrete structures and inclusions inside concrete. It is also found that the microwave method has a potential in detecting the delamination between fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) plate and concrete. On the other hand, ultrasonic method can be another way to find the delamination. In this paper, the research work needed for the development of a reliable microwave method and ultrasonic method is studied in the measurements of concrete specimens reinforced with FRP. Concrete specimens are made with FRP and artificial delamination inside. A microwave measurement system with hom antennas with high center frequency and broad frequency bandwidth are used to image inside concrete specimens for the detection of debonding between concrete and FRP. Also, ultrasonic method is used for the same condition. Both results are compared with each other.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2018

Nondestructive testing methods are required to assess the condition of civil structures and formulate their maintenance programs. Axial force identification is required for several structural members of truss bridges, pipe racks, and space roof trusses. An accurate evaluation of in situ axial forces supports the safety assessment of the entire truss. A considerable redistribution of internal forces may indicate structural damage. In this paper, a novel compressive force identification method for prismatic members implemented using static deflections is applied to steel beams. The procedure uses the Euler-Bernoulli beam model and estimates the compressive load by using the measured displacement along the beam's length. Knowledge of flexural rigidity of the member under investigation is required. In this study, the deflected shape of a compressed steel beam is subjected to an additional vertical load that was short-term measured in several laboratory tests by using fiber Bragg grating-differential settlement measurement (FBG-DSM) sensors at specific cross sections along the beam's length. The accuracy of midspan deflections offered by the FBG-DSM sensors provided excellent force estimations. Compressive load detection accuracy can be improved if substantial second-order effects are induced in the tests. In conclusion, the proposed method can be successfully applied to steel beams with low slenderness under real conditions.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.147-152
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• 2007

Numerous non-destructive tests(NDT) to assess the safety of real structures have been developed. System identification(SI) techniques using dynamic responses and behaviors of structural systems become an outstanding issue of researchers. However the conventional SI techniques are identified to be non-practical to the complex and tall buildings, due to limitation of the availability of an accurate data that is magnitude or location of external loads. In most SI approaches, the information on input loading and output responses must be known. In many cases, measuring the input information may take most of the resources, and it is very difficult to accurately measure the input information during actual vibrations of practical importance, e.g., earthquakes, winds, micro seismic tremors, and mechanical vibration. However, the desirability and application potential of SI to real structures could be highly improved if an algorithm is available that can estimate structural parameters based on the response data alone without the input information. Thus a technique to estimate structural properties of building without input measurement data and using limited response is essential in structural health monitoring. In this study, shaking table tests on three-story plane frame steel structures were performed. Out-put only model analysis on the measured data was performed, and the dynamic properties were inverse analyzed using least square method in time domain. In results damage detection was performed in each member level, which was performed at story level in conventional SI techniques of frequency domain.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.43-58
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• 2002

A methodology to nondestructively locate and estimate size of damage in beam-type structures using a few natural frequencies or a few mode shapes is presented. A damage-localization algorithm to locate damage from changes in natural frequencies and a damage-sizing algorithm to estimate crack-size from natural frequency perturbation are outlined. A damage index algorithm to localize and estimate severity of damage from monitoring changes in mode shapes is outlined. The frequency-based method and the mode-shape-based method are evaluated for several damage scenarios by locating and sizing damage in PS concrete beams lot which a few natural frequencies and mode shapes are generated from finite element models. The result of the analyses indicates that the two methods correctly localize and closely estimate the size of the crack simulated in the test beam.