• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.379-386
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• 2005

Among various kinds of hearing aids which have been developed so far. the conventional air conduction hearing aids have some problems such as the acoustic distortion, an howling effect due to acoustic feedback. Another type of hearing aid. the cochlear implant system can be applied to the profound imparied person. However. it shows the disadvantage that there is no possibility of recovery of the acoustic organ such as ossicle. On the other hand. the implantable middle ear heaving device directly vibratos the ossicular chain and has better sound qualify. good cosmetics for appearance. and wide frequency responses so that it can overcome the defects or the conventional hearing aids. In this paper, a mathematical modeling and a momentum equation derivation of the DET has been performed. For the optimization of the structure dimension generating maximal vibrating force of the DET. the computer simulation using a finite element analysis (FEA) software has been performed. Also. the vibrating transducer has been designed to make the frequency characteristics or the transducer be similar to those of the normal middle ear. Through the experimental results, the measured vibration characteristics of the DET has been evaluated to verify the performance for the application to implantable middle ear hearing devices.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.326-333
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• 2018

Background: Echocardiography involves strenuous postures of the upper limbs. This study explored the physical workload in the neck and upper limbs in sonographers performing echocardiography, and the extent to which the workload differs from than in other work tasks (other sonographic examinations, and nonsonographic tasks). Methods: The physical load was assessed by inclinometry, goniometry, and electromyography methods in 33 female sonographers during authentic work using three different echocardiography techniques and other work tasks. Results: Echocardiography was characterized by low velocities of the head, arms, and wrists, and a low proportion of muscular resting time in the forearms, in the transducer limb, and the computer limb. The transducer limb was more elevated in one of the techniques, but this technique also involved a higher proportion of muscular resting time of the trapezius muscle. We also found a high proportion of awkward wrist postures in the transducer wrist in all three techniques; in one due to prolonged flexion, and in the others due to prolonged extension. Other work tasks were less static, and were performed with higher upper arm and wrist velocities. Conclusion: None of the three echocardiography techniques was optimal concerning physical workload. Thus, to achieve more variation in physical load we recommend that the equipment be arranged so that the sonographer can alternate between two different techniques during the workday. We also propose alternation between echocardiography and nonsonographic tasks, in order to introduce variation in the physical workload. Clinical expertise should be used to achieve further improvements.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.481-493
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• 2018

Ultrasonic guided waves have attracted increasing attention for non-destructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridge cables. They offer advantages like single measurement, wide coverage of acoustical field, and long-range propagation capability. To design defect detection systems, it is essential to understand how guided waves propagate in cables and how to select the optimal excitation frequency and mode. However, certain cable characteristics such as multiple wires, anchorage, and polyethylene (PE) sheath increase the complexity in analyzing the guided wave propagation. In this study, guided wave modes for multi-wire bridge cables are identified by using a semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) technique to obtain relevant dispersion curves. Numerical results indicated that the number of guided wave modes increases, the length of the flat region with a low frequency of L(0,1) mode becomes shorter, and the cutoff frequency for high order longitudinal wave modes becomes lower, as the number of steel wires in a cable increases. These findings were used in design of transducers for defect detection and selection of the optimal wave mode and frequency for subsequent experiments. A magnetostrictive transducer system was used to excite and detect the guided waves. The applicability of the proposed approach for detecting and locating wire breakages was demonstrated for a cable with 37 wires. The present ultrasonic guided wave method has been found to be very responsive to the number of brokenwires and is thus capable of detecting defects with varying sizes.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.319-330
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• 2022

In this study, the optimal driving frequency was derived through finite element analysis (FEA) to optimize the developed piezoelectric ultrasonic medical devices(PUMD) for bone surgery. The core of the PUMD is the piezoelectric ceramic (PZT), which is a vibrator that generates vibration energy. The piezoelectric ceramic shows the maximum current value with respect to the input voltage at the resonance frequency, which generates the maximum mechanical vibration. In the past, various studies have been conducted related to the analysis of PUMD, but most of the research so far has been limited to free vibration analysis. However, in order to derive the accurate resonant frequency, the initial stress generated by bolt tightening in the bolt-clamped Langevin type transducer (BLT) must be considered. In this study, after designing a PUMD, the driving performance according to the bolt tightening value was analyzed through FEA, and this was experimentally verified. First, the resonance mode and frequency response were confirmed through modal and harmonic analysis at 20-40 kHz, which is known as the optimal driving frequency band of PUMD for bone surgery. In addition, the design of the PUMD was confirmed by checking the mechanical behavior of the tip and the piezoelectric ceramic at the resonant frequency. Consequentially, the characteristic evaluation was performed, and it was confirmed that the resonant frequency result derived through the FEA was reasonable. Through this study, we presented a more rational FEA method than before for BLT transducers. We expect that this will shorten the time and cost of developing a PUMD, and will enable the development of more stable and high-quality products.

• KIEE International Transaction on Electrical Machinery and Energy Conversion Systems
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• v.5B no.1
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• pp.90-94
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• 2005

As the structure of the piezoelectric bimorph cantilever becomes increasingly more complicated, a more accurate and efficient analysis of piezoelectric media is needed. In this paper, the piezoelectric transducer is analyzed by using the three-dimensional finite element method. The validity of the three-dimensional finite element routine is confirmed by comparing the experimental result. The resonance characteristics, such as resonance frequency and anti-resonance frequency, of the piezoelectric cantilever are calculated by the experimentally verified three dimensional finite element method. Subsequently, the characteristics, such as mechanical displacement and impedance, are calculated at the resonance frequency. Besides, to design the piezoelectric bimorph cantilever shape that maximizes displacement at the tip, the ES (Evolution Strategy) algorithm is applied. Finally, optimal design for the fan of the piezoelectric cantilever is fulfilled to obtain maximum displacement at the tip. From these results, the application potentiality of the piezoelectric bimorph cantilever fan is identified.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.263-267
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• 2011

Ultrasonic metal welding can be used to weld different metals together safely and precisely, without solder, flux and special preparation. Ultrasonic metal welding machine consists of a power supply, a transducer, a booster and a horn. This paper designed the horn needed for Ultrasonic metal welding. The horn has to be designed and manufactured accurately, because measurements such as the shape, length, mass and etc. have effects on the resonant frequency and the vibration mode. The designed horn has the feature of 40,000Hz of nature frequency, and maximizes vibration range in the Tip by resonance in the frequency of ultrasonic wave machine. In this paper, we calculated and analyzed the natural frequency to find the optimal design of the horn that had the amplitude about $12{\mu}m$ by the modal analysis and harmonic analysis using ANSYS. And we analyzed FFT analysis of the manufactured horn.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.12
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• pp.1730-1736
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• 2013

Slanted and chirp interdigital transducer(IDT) configurations were studied for generating the surface acoustic wave(SAW) with wide bandwidths on a piezoelectric substrate. These devices can be applied to manipulate optical path of light along the waveguide, ultimately used for optical switches and holographic image implementation. Prior to fabrication, the coupling of modes(COM) modeling and simulation were performed to extract optimal design parameters. The optimally designed wideband device showed wide bandwidth of 30MHz, low insertion loss of -25dB, and abrupt side suppression ratio (SSR). Several design conditions were determined during device implementation, such as slanted angle, aperture length, number of fingers, and central frequencies of IDTs. These factors were experimentally analyzed and described in details in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.571-576
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• 1994

In recent years, ultrasonic has been widely applied in measurement and industrial fields and its application range has been expanded as a result of continuous research and development. Wire Bonding Machine, an instrument fabricating semi-conductor, makes use of ultrasonic bonding method. In order to improve the currently used wire bonding machine using ultrasonic energy, technical accumulation is needed steadily through development of exciting device of ultrasonic composed of piezoelectic vibrator and horn. This study investigates the design conditions affecting the dynamic characteristics through the theoretical and experimental analysis of piezoelectric vibrator and horn, The study conducts separately the system identification of piezoelectric vibrator in time domain and the modal analysis of horn in frequency domain. In theoretical model, the integrated modeling is conducted via a combination of dynamic identification of piezoelectric vibrator and theoretical analysis of horn. Hence comparison is made for theoretical and experimental results of the dynamic characteristics of the ultrasonic transducer composed of piezoelectric vibrator and horn. Form the results of this study we develop the design technique of ultrasonic transducer using dynamic characteristic analysis and propose the possibility of ultrasonic welding considering the optimal condition of the natural frequency and vibration mode of horn.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.249-255
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• 2005

In recent years, a novel tiny piezoelectric linear motor converting a radial mode vibration to a longitudinal mode vibration driven by the impact force has been developed for a camera optical module. The tiny piezoelectric motor is consisted of a shaft, mobile element, and piezoelectric transducer. In this work, the frictional coefficient and static friction force of the interface between the shaft and the mobile element have been investigated according to their respective materials. It was found that two combinations, namely Pyrex glass or stainless steel for the shaft and stainless steel (SUS) for the mobile element, exhibited good dynamic behaviors in the tiny ultrasonic linear motor, which was newly developed based on operating concepts based on Newton's law.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.319-328
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• 2010

Bonded tendons have been used in reactor buildings at some operating nuclear power plants in Korea. Assessing prestress force on these bonded tendons has become an important pending problem in efforts to assure continued operation beyond their design life. The System Identification (SI) technique was thus developed to improve upon the existing indirect assessment technique for bonded tendons. As a first step, this study analyzed the sensitivity of the key parameters to prestress force, and then determined the optimal parameters for the SI technique. A total of six scaled post-tensioned concrete beams with bonded tendons were manufactured. In order to investigate the correlation of the natural frequency and the displacement to prestress force, an impact test, a Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) sine sweep test, and a bending test using an optical fiber sensor and compact displacement transducer were carried out. These tests found that both the natural frequency and the displacement show a good correlation with prestress force and that both parameters are available for the SI technique to predict prestress force. However, displacements by the optical fiber sensor and compact displacement transducer were shown to be more sensitive than the natural frequency to prestress force. Such displacements are more useful than the natural frequency as an input parameter for the SI technique.