• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.139-144
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• 2016

Effects of the shape and size of the piezoelectric materials on the performance of tonpilz transducers were studied with a computer simulation using a finite element method (FEM). The diameter and height of the donut-shaped piezoelectric ceramics head mass were changed as variables. And the effect of the stack number was also investigated. Finally, if the piezoelectric ceramics were changed to a piezoelectric single crystal having high piezoelectric constants, how the performances especially, the output power and the TVR transmittance were affected was simulated by FEM. As a result, the output of transducer could be increased to 10 times of PZT-4 with replacement of relaxor single crystal of the same size.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 한국소음진동공학회 2011년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.418-429
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• 2011

Researches using time reversal acoustics (TRA) for impact localization have been paid attention to recently. Dispersion characteristics of Lamb waves, which restrict the utility of classical nondestructive evaluation based on time-of-flight information, can be compensated through the application of TRA to Lamb waves on a plate. This study investigates the spatial focusing performance of time reversal Lamb waves on a plate using finite element analysis. In particular, the virtual sensor effect caused by multiple wave reflections at the boundaries of the plate is shown to enable the spatial focusing of Lamb waves though a very small number of surface-bonded piezoelectric (PZT) sensors are available. The time window size of forward response signals, are normalized with respect to the number of virtual active sensors. Then their effects on the spatial focusing performance of Lamb waves are investigated.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.317-326
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• 2002

Characteristics of a twin-fluid spray with ultrasonic vibration were examined in order to obtain a high efficiency of cold-fog spray of the automatic pest control machine which has been widely used in protected horticulture recently. An electrostrictive vibrator of PZT BLT and a magnetostrictive $\pi$-type vibrator were used applied as the ultrasonic transducers with a frequency of 28 kHz. All experiments were conducted in 4 methods of spray ; a conventional spray method without ultrasonic forcing, an indirect vibration method with ultrasonic forcing, an improving-quality method by ultrasonic forced within liquid, and a combined-use method with both of the indirect vibration method and the improving quality method. It was found that the ultrasonic energy increased the atomization efficiency of spray droplets about 10% and especially much more in the case of the combined-use method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.358-363
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• 2008

Ultrasonic nonlinearity has been considered as a promising method to evaluate the micro damage of material; however, its magnitude is so small that its measurement is not easy. Thus, in this study, we investigate the effects of such experimental system dependent factors in the measurement of ultrasonic nonlinear parameter by using contact PZT transducer. Experimental results showed that the effect of system dependent nonlinearity is reduced when the contact pressure and transducer input voltage are sufficiently large. These results will be very useful to find out the proper experiment condition to measure rather accurate nonlinear parameter.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.270-280
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• 2016

This paper investigates the evolution of EM admittance of piezoelectric transducers mounted on a notched beam from wave propagation perspective. A finite element analysis is adopted to obtain numerical solutions for Lamb waves reverberating on the notched beam. The mode-converted Lamb wave signals due to a notch are extracted by using the polarization characteristics of piezoelectric transducers collocated on the beam. Then, a series of temporal spectrums are computed to demonstrate the evolution of EM admittance through fast Fourier transform of the mode-converted Lamb wave signals which are consecutively truncated in the time domain. When truncation time is relatively small, the corresponding temporal spectrum is governed by the characteristics of the input driving frequency. As truncation time becomes large, however, the modal characteristics of the notched beam play a crucial role in the temporal spectrum within the input driving frequency band. This implies that mode-converted Lamb waves reverberating on the beam contributes to the resonance of the beam. The root mean square values are computed for the temporal spectrums in the vicinity of each resonance frequency. The root mean square values increase monotonically with respect to truncation time for any resonance frequencies. Finally the implications of the numerical observation are discussed in the context of damage detection of a beam.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.29-44
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• 2020

The effectiveness and the sensitivity of a Wireless impedance/Admittance Monitoring System (WiAMS) for the prompt damage diagnosis of two single-storey single-span Reinforced Concrete (RC) frames under cyclic loading is experimentally investigated. The geometrical and the reinforcement characteristics of the RC structural members of the frames represent typical old RC frame structure without consideration of seismic design criteria. The columns of the frames are vulnerable to shear failure under lateral load due to their low height-to-depth ratio and insufficient transverse reinforcement. The proposed Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system comprises of specially manufactured autonomous portable devices that acquire the in-situ voltage frequency responses of a network of twenty piezoelectric transducers mounted to the RC frames. Measurements of external and internal small-sized piezoelectric patches are utilized for damage localization and assessment at various and increased damage levels as the magnitude of the imposed lateral cycle deformations increases. A bare RC frame and a strengthened one using a pair of steel crossed tension-ties (X-bracing) have been tested in order to check the sensitivity of the developed WiAMS in different structural conditions since crack propagation, damage locations and failure mode of the examined frames vary. Indeed, the imposed loading caused brittle shear failure to the column of the bare frame and the formation of plastic hinges at the beam ends of the X-braced frame. Test results highlighted the ability of the proposed SHM to identify incipient damages due to concrete cracking and steel yielding since promising early indication of the forthcoming critical failures before any visible sign has been obtained.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.227-239
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• 2020

Despite proven effectiveness and accuracy in laboratories, the existing damage assessment based on guided ultrasonic waves (GUWs) or acoustic emission (AE) confronts challenges when extended to real-world structural health monitoring (SHM) for railway tracks. Central to the concerns are the extremely complex signal appearance due to highly dispersive and multimodal wave features, restriction on transducer installations, and severe contaminations of ambient noise. It remains a critical yet unsolved problem along with recent attempts to implement SHM in bourgeoning high-speed railway (HSR). By leveraging authors' continued endeavours, an SHM framework, based on actively generated diffuse ultrasonic waves (DUWs) and a benchmark-free condition contrast algorithm, has been developed and deployed via an all-in-one SHM system. Miniaturized lead zirconate titanate (PZT) wafers are utilized to generate and acquire DUWs in long-range railway tracks. Fatigue cracks in the tracks show unique contact behaviours under different conditions of external loads and further disturb DUW propagation. By contrast DUW propagation traits, fatigue cracks in railway tracks can be characterised quantitatively and the holistic health status of the tracks can be evaluated in a real-time manner. Compared with GUW- or AE-based methods, the DUW-driven inspection philosophy exhibits immunity to ambient noise and measurement uncertainty, less dependence on baseline signals, use of significantly reduced number of transducers, and high robustness in atrocious engineering conditions. Conformance tests are performed on HSR tracks, in which the evolution of fatigue damage is monitored continuously and quantitatively, demonstrating effectiveness, adaptability, reliability and robustness of DUW-driven SHM towards HSR applications.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• 제34권6호
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• pp.29-34
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• 2006

This study experimentally investigates the characteristics of Lamb wave propagating in a composite plate of varied thickness. In practical aerospace structures, there are so many parts that have varied thickness. Therefore, in order to employ the Lamb wave in a structural health monitoring of those parts, it is necessary to understand correctly the characteristics of Lamb wave for the structure with thickness variation. Thin surface-bonded piezoelectric transducers, which have great potential in integrated monitoring systems for structural health, were used to generate and receive Lamb waves. The predicted propagation velocity under the assumptions of ideal mode conversions was compared with the experimentally measured one. The validity of the results was supported by the frequency analysis of the signals. Consequently, the results show that the transient region is occurred when Lamb waves propagate across the region that thickness variation over some gradient exists.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.220-225
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• 2008

Lead-free ferroelectric ceramics are widely researched today for industrial applications as sensors, actuators and transducers. Since $Pb(Zr_aTi_{1-a})O_3$-(PZT) has high Curie temperature($T_C$), high piezoelectric properties near its morphotropic phase boundary(MPB) composition and small temperature dependence electrical behavior, it has been used to commercial materials for wide temperature range and different application fields. According to the tolerance factor concept, since the $Bi^{3+}$ cation with 12-fold coordinate has a smaller ionic radius than 12-fold coordinate $Pb^{2+}$, most bismuth based perovskites possess a smaller tolerance factor. Therefore, MPBs with a higher $T_C$ may be expected in $Bi(Me^{3+})O_3PbTiO_3$ solid solutions. As in lead based perovskite systems, it is clear that we need to explore more materials in simple or complex bismuth based MPB systems. The objective of this study is to investigate the $Bi(Ni_{1_a}X_a)O_3-PbTiO_3(X=Ti^{4+},\;Nb^{5+})$ perovskite solid-solution. For improving the electronic conduction problem, the magnesium and manganese modified system was also studied.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.135-150
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• 2015

Large concrete structures are prone to cracks and damages over time from human usage, weathers, and other environmental attacks such as flood, earthquakes, and hurricanes. The health of the concrete structures should be monitored regularly to ensure safety. A reliable method of real time communications can facilitate more frequent structural health monitoring (SHM) updates from hard to reach positions, enabling crack detections of embedded concrete structures as they occur to avoid catastrophic failures. By implementing an unconventional mode of communication that utilizes guided stress waves traveling along the concrete structure itself, we may be able to free structural health monitoring from costly (re-)installation of communication wires. In stress-wave communications, piezoelectric transducers can act as actuators and sensors to send and receive modulated signals carrying concrete status information. The new generation of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based smart aggregates cause multipath propagation in the homogeneous concrete channel, which presents both an opportunity and a challenge for multiple sensors communication. We propose a time reversal based pulse position modulation (TR-PPM) communication for stress wave communication within the concrete structure to combat multipath channel dispersion. Experimental results demonstrate successful transmission and recovery of TR-PPM using stress waves. Compared with PPM, we can achieve higher data rate and longer link distance via TR-PPM. Furthermore, TR-PPM remains effective under low signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. This work also lays the foundation for implementing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) stress wave communication networks in concrete channels.