• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.412-419
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• 2009

How to efficiently and accurately detect the damages generated in a structure has become an important issue for structural health monitoring (SHM). Most existing SHM techniques require the baseline data which should be measured before a structure get damaged. Thus, this paper presents a new pitch-catch method-based SHM technique which will not require the baseline data any more. In the proposed SHM technique, the imaging method is also utilized to visualize damage locations. The proposed SHM technique is then validated through the damage detection texts for damaged aluminum plates.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.148-151
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• 2009

In these days it is important to secure the life and stability of the structure such as aircrafts, automobiles and building. So the structural health monitoring is needed. In conventional lamb wave techniques, damage is identified by comparing the measured data (baseline signals) and the current data. But this method can lead to high false signal in the intact condition of the structure due to environmental conditions of the structure. As a solution to resolve it, the structural health monitoring method which doesn't use baseline signals is necessary. Damaged structure has unusual elastic wave. This paper proposed a PC(pitch-catch) method which doesn't use baseline signal. New baseline signals can get from detection signal. Damage signals based on new baseline signals. This paper made an image includes damage information by applying damage-signals to beamformming.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.5A
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• pp.421-431
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• 2009

This paper is the study on the verification of structural health monitoring (SHM) algorithm based on the ultrasonic guided wave. An active inspection system using Lamb wave (LW) for SHM was considered. The basic study about the application of this algorithm was performed for detecting the circular notch defect in steel plate. LW testing technique, pitch-catch method, was used for interpretation of circular notch defect with depth of 50% of plate thickness and 7 mm width. Damage characterization takes place by comparing $S_0$ mode sensor signals collected before and after the damage event. By subtracting the signals of both conditions from each other, a scatter signal is produced which can be used for damage localization. The continuous Gabor wavelet transform is used to attain the time between the arrivals of the scatter and sensor signals. A new practical damage monitoring algorithm, based on damage monitoring polygon and pitch-catch method, has been proposed and verified with good accuracy. The possible damage location can be estimated by the average on calculated location points and the damage extent by the standard deviation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.46-53
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• 2008

Ultrasonic C-scan technique is one of very popular techniques being used for detection of flaws in polymer matrix composite(PMC). However, the application of this technique is very limited for evaluation of defects in PMC fabricated by the automated fiber placement process. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel ultrasonic hybrid system based on nondestructive and non-contact ultrasonic techniques for evaluation of delamination in carbon/epoxy and carbon/PPS composite laminates. It was shown that the newly developed ultrasonic hybrid system based on dual air-coupled pitch-catch technique with ultrasonic scattering reflection concept could provide excellent image with higher resolution of delamination in PMC compared with the conventional pitch-catch method. It is expected that this ultrasonic hybrid technique can be applied for on-line inspection of flaws in PMC during the fabrication process.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.97-119
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• 2013

This paper presents numerical and experimental results on the use of guided waves for structural health monitoring (SHM) of crack growth during a fatigue test in a thick steel plate used for civil engineering application. Numerical simulation, analytical modeling, and experimental tests are used to prove that piezoelectric wafer active sensor (PWAS) can perform active SHM using guided wave pitch-catch method and passive SHM using acoustic emission (AE). AE simulation was performed with the multi-physic FEM (MP-FEM) approach. The MP-FEM approach permits that the output variables to be expressed directly in electric terms while the two-ways electromechanical conversion is done internally in the MP-FEM formulation. The AE event was simulated as a pulse of defined duration and amplitude. The electrical signal measured at a PWAS receiver was simulated. Experimental tests were performed with PWAS transducers acting as passive receivers of AE signals. An AE source was simulated using 0.5-mm pencil lead breaks. The PWAS transducers were able to pick up AE signal with good strength. Subsequently, PWAS transducers and traditional AE transducer were applied to a 12.7-mm CT specimen subjected to accelerated fatigue testing. Active sensing in pitch catch mode on the CT specimen was applied between the PWAS transducers pairs. Damage indexes were calculated and correlated with actual crack growth. The paper finishes with conclusions and suggestions for further work.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.498-504
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• 2011

The flapping characteristics and advance ratios at torque equilibrium state of autorotation were investigated when the airspeed, shaft angle, and pitch angle were varied. To simulate the airspeed increase, the aerodynamic data analyzed by using the compressible Navier-Stokes solver and Pitt/Peters inflow theory were used. Transient Simulation Method(TSM) was used to catch the torque equilibrium states. The maximum flapping angles at torque equilibrium state were correlated to the airspeed, shaft angle, and pitch angle. By comparing flapping behavior to the variation of advance ratio, the phenomenon that the extension of reverse flow area of retreating blade affects the characteristics of autorotation was qualitatively considered.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.458-465
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• 2009

In general, ultrasonic guided wave techniques that used for an evaluation of the internal defect have been applied without considering energy loss. It can be found out that the significant attenuation is observed in the signal of structure with defect by the scattering and absorption. Even in the signal acquired from defect-free structure, this attenuation can be also significant. Therefore, it is very essential to determine the Lamb wave propagation characteristics depending on modes because the dispersibility of Lamb wave can be easily influenced by the attenuation effect with frequency and thickness. For this reason, changing the propagation distance, attenuation coefficient of each Lamb wave mode needs to be investigated by the contact pitch-catch method with PZT(piezoelectric) sensors. In this paper, the experimental attenuation coefficient is measured by choosing the following three different variables; mode, thickness and plate materials. As a result, experimental attenuation coefficient is obtained as the function of variables.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.101-113
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• 2006

Structural health monitoring results obtained with the electro-mechanical (E/M) impedance techniqueand Lamb wave transmission methods during fatigue crack propagation of an Arcan specimen instrumented with piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) are presented. The specimen was subjected in mixed-mode fatigue loading and a crack was propagated in stages. At each stage, an image of the crack and the location of the crack tip were recorded and the PWAS readings were taken. Hence, the crack-growth in the specimen could be correlated with the PWAS readings. The E/M impedance signature was recorded in the 100 - 500 kHz frequency range. The Lamb-wave transmission method used the pitch-catch approach with a 3-count sine tone burst of 474 kHz transmitted and received between various PWAS pairs. Fatigue loading was applied to initiate and propagate the crack damage of controlled magnitude. As damage progressed, the E/M impedance signatures and the waveforms received by receivers were recorded at predetermined intervals and compared. Data analysis indicated that both the E/M impedance signatures and the Lamb-wave transmission signatures are modified by the crack progression. Damage index values were observed to increase as the crack damage increases. These experiments demonstrated that the use of PWAS in conjunction with the E/M impedance and the Lamb-wave transmission is a potentially powerful tool for crack damage detection and monitoring in structural elements.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.363-368
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• 1999

Ultrasonic pulse-echo methods measuring the transit time through specimens have been widely used in determination of ultrasonic velocity and thickness of specimens. Usually, to determine the velocity of the ultrasonic. the transit time of the ultrasonic pulse through specimen is measured by using the ultrasonic measuring equipment such as the oscilloscope including ultrasonic pulser/receiver and the thickness of the specimen is measured by using the length measuring instrument such as micrometer or vernier calipers etc., i. e. each parameter is measured by using each measuring method. In the case of the measuring the thickness of a specimen by using the ultrasonics. the ultrasonic equipments, which measure the thickness, such as the ultrasonic thickness gauge must be calibrated by using the reference block of which the ultrasonic velocity is known beforehand. In the present work, we proposed a new method for simultaneous measurement of ultrasonic velocity and thickness without reference blocks. Experimental results for several specimens show that proposed method have good agreements with those by traditional ultrasonic method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.67-79
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• 2015

Acoustic emission analysis is an effective technique for monitoring the evolution of damage in a structure. An experimental analysis on a set of reinforced concrete beams under flexural loading was carried out. A mixed AE analysis method which used both parameter-based and signal-based techniques was presented to characterize and identify different failure mechanisms of damage, where the signal-based analysis was performed by using the Hilbert-Huang transform. The maximum instantaneous energy of typical damage events and the corresponding frequency characteristics were established, which provided a quantitative assessment of reinforced concrete beam using AE technique. In the bending tests, a "pitch-catch" system was mounted on a steel bar to assess bonding state of the steel bar in concrete. To better understand the AE behavior of bond-slip damage between steel bar and concrete, a special bond-slip test called pullout test was also performed. The results provided the basis of quantitative AE to identify both failure mechanisms and level of damages of civil engineering structures.