• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.373-379
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• 2010

EMAT has been applied in various fields for flaw detection and material characterization because it has noncontact property in wave generation and a good mode selectivity. Unfortunately, however, EMAT shows low signal to noise ratio relative to commercial contact transducer because of low energy conversion efficiency. If the phase matching through the control of time delay between each coil consisting of the array EMAT is accomplished, it is expected that it will be a solution for the improvement of low signal to noise ratio. In this experiment, the phased array EMATs which consists of 3 or 4 meander coils and one big magnet were fabricated for surface and vertical shear wave generation. Effect of phased delay control on signal directivity and amplitude enhancement was verified. A slit with the depth of 0.5 mm and a side-drill hole of 0.5 mm diameter were clearly detected by fabricated phased array EMATs, respectively.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.452-465
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• 2016

In this study, the structure of a concave annular array transducer was optimized to generate high intensity focused ultrasound for medical therapeutic application. The transducer has a phased array structure composed of several concentric channels that have 40 mm as the radius of curvature. We derived theoretical equations to analyze the sound field of the transducer and verified the validity of the equations by comparing the results calculated by the equations with those from finite element analyses. We also checked the possibility of dynamic focusing at around the geometric focal point. Further, the level of a grating lobe occurring at an unwanted position in the transducer sound field was confirmed to be reducible through the relation between the number of channels and the frequency of the transducer. Hence, the structure of the transducer was optimized to place the main lobe within a specific range from the zenith while systematically reducing the level of the maximum sidelobe including the grating lobe. The designed structure showed the performance better than that targeted at all the focal points.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.578-579
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• 2011

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 2004

Ultrasonic testing is a kind of nondestructive test to detect a crack or discontinuity in materials or on material surfaces by sending ultrasound to it. This conventional ultrasonic technique has some limitations in reliably detecting crack or accurately assessing materials in the case of complex-shaped power plant components such as a turbine blade root. An alternative method for such a difficult inspection is highly needed. In this study, application of a phased array ultrasonic testing (UT) system to a turbine blade, one of the critical power plant components, has been considered, and the particular incident angle has been determined so that the greatest track detectability and the most accurate crack length evaluation nay be achieved. The response of ultrasonic phased array was also analyzed to establish a special method to determine the track )ength without moving the transducer. The result showed that the developed method for crack length assessment is a more accurate and effective method, compared with the conventional method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2009

The results of crack evaluation by conventional UT(Ultrasonic Test)is highly depend on the inspector's experience or knowledge of ultrasound. Phased array UT system and its application methods for small crack length evaluation will be a good alternative method which overcome present UT weakness. This study was aimed at checking the accuracy of crack length evaluation method by electronic scanning and discuss about characteristics of electronic scanning for crack length evaluation. Especially ultrasonic phased array with electronic scan technique was used in carrying out both sizing and detect ability of crack as its length changes. The response of ultrasonic phased array was analyzed to obtain the special method of determining crack length without moving the transducer and detect-ability of crack minimal length and depth from the material. A method of crack length determining by electronic scanning for the small crack is very real method which has it's accuracy and verify the effectiveness of method compared to a conventional crack length determination.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.211-219
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• 2014

Closed cracks are difficult to detect using conventional ultrasonic testing because most incident ultrasound passes completely through these cracks. Nonlinear ultrasound inspection using sub-harmonic frequencies a promising method for detecting closed cracks. To implement this method, a sub-harmonic phased array (PA) is proposed to visualize the length of closed cracks in solids. A sub-harmonic PA generally consists of a single transmitter and an array receiver, which detects sub-harmonic waves generated from closed cracks. The PA images are obtained using the total focusing method (TFM), which (with a transmitter and receiving array) employs a full matrix in the observation region to achieve fine image resolution. In particular, the receiving signals are measured using a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) to collect PA images for both fundamental and sub-harmonic frequencies. Oblique incidence, which is used to boost sub-harmonic generation, inevitably produces various surface waves that contaminate the signals measured in the receiving transducer. Surface wave interference often degrades PA images severely, and it becomes difficult to read the closed crack's position from the images. Various methods to prevent or eliminate this interference are possible. In particular, enhancing images with signal processing could be a highly cost-effective method. Because periodic patterns distributed in a PA image are the most frequent interference induced by surface waves, spatial frequency filtering is applicable for removing these waves. Experiments clearly demonstrate that the spatial frequency filter improves PA images.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.1418-1425
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• 2014

In ultrasonic medical imaging, spatial compounding of images is a technique where ultrasonic beam is steered to examine patient tissues in multiple angles. In the conventional ultrasonic diagnostic imaging, the steering of the ultrasonic beam is achieved electronically using the phased array transducer elements. In this paper, a spatial compounding approach is presented where the ultrasonic probe element is rotated mechanically and the beam steering is achieved mechanically. In the spatial compounding, target position is computed using the value of the rotation axis and the transducer array angular position. However, in the process of the rotation mechanism construction and the control system there arises the inevitable uncertainties in these values. These geometric parameter errors result in the target position error, and the consequence is a blurry compounded image. In order to reduce these target position errors, we present a spatial compounding scheme where error correcting transformation matrices are computed and applied to the raw images before spatial compounding to reduce the blurriness in the compounded image. The proposed scheme is illustrated using phantom and live scan images of human knee, and it is shown that the blurriness is effectively reduced.

• 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.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.2E
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• pp.55-63
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• 2010

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is a noninvasive surgical method mainly targeting deeply located cancer tissue. Ultrasound is generated from an extemally located transducer and the beam is focused at the target volume, so that selective damage can be achieved without harm to overlying or surrounding tissues. The mechanism for cell killing can be combination of thermal and cavitational damage. Although cavitation can be an effective means of tissue destruction, the possibility of massive hemorrhage and the unpredictable nature of cavitational events prevent clinical application of cavitation. Hence, thermal damage has been a main focus related to HIFU research. 2D phased array transducer systems allow electronic scanning of focus, multi-foci, and anti-focus with multi-foci, so that HIFU becomes more applicable in clinical use. Currently, lack of noninvasive monitoring means of HIFU is the main factor to limit clinical applications, but development in MRI and Ultrasound Imaging techniques may be able to provide solutions to overcome this problem. With the development of advanced focusing algorithm and monitoring means, complete noninvasive surgery is expected to be implemented in the near future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 2016

An EMAT can be used to reliably detect defects as it serves as a non-contact transducer with the ability to transmit ultrasonic waves into specimens without couplant. Moreover, an EMAT can easily generate desired waves by altering the design of the coil and magnet. This study proposes an SH-EMAT to evaluate the integrity of the TIG welding part. A stainless steel was welded using the TIG welding method. The welding current was varied to create artificial defects. Both the PA-UT and the RT were applied to verify the defect size. The experimental results generated by using the EMAT were compared with those methods. The amplitude was observed to decrease with an increase in the defect size. These results confirmed that the presence of defects can be reliably detected by attenuation of signal amplitude. The results demonstrated that the proposed method is suitable for evaluating the integrity of TIG welding.