• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.224-228
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• 2002

In this study, the piezoelectric ceramics PZT powder was synthesized by the Wet-Dry combination method. Flexible 1-3 type composite specimens were fabricated with the piezoceramics PZT filler phase and Eccogel polymer matrix phase. This paper represents the pulse-echo response of the 1-3 type composite transducer to check it out to investigate a basic property regarding a level limit switch. The acoustic impedance of 1-3 type composite was improved than that of single phase PZT ceramics. The pulse-echo response of transducer fabricated with the self-made 1-3 type composites resonator was better than that of the solid PZT transducer.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.225-234
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• 2009

Dredged silt from reservoirs in southern Taiwan was sintered to make lightweight aggregates (LWA), which were then used to produce lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC).This study aimed to assess the compressive strength and homogeneity of LWAC using ultrasonic-echo sensing. Concrete specimens were prepared using aggregates of four different particle density, namely 800, 1100, 1300 and 2650 kg/$m^3$. The LWAC specimens were cylindrical and a square wall with core specimens drilled. Besides compressive strength test, ultrasonic-echo sensing was employed to examine the ultrasonic pulse velocity and homogeneity of the wall specimens and to explore the relationship between compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity. Results show that LWA, due to its lower relative density, causes bloating, thus resulting in uneven distribution of aggregates and poor homogeneity. LWAC mixtures using LWA of particle density 1300 kg/$m^3$ show the most even distribution of aggregates and hence best homogeneity as well as highest compressive strength of 63.5 MPa. In addition, measurements obtained using ultrasonic-echo sensing and traditional ultrasonic method show little difference, supporting that ultrasonic-echo sensing can indeed perform non-destructive, fast and accurate assessment of LWAC homogeneity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.135-141
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• 1999

Recently, advance signal analysis which is called "Time-Frequency Analysis" has been developed. Wavelet and Wigner Distribution are used to the method. Wavelet transform(WT) is applied to time-frequency analysis of waveforms obtained by an ultrasonic pulse-echo technique. The Gabor function is adopted as the analyzing wavelet. Wavelet analysis method is an attractive technique for evolution of material characterization evoluation. In this paper, the feasibility of suppression of ultrasonic background noise signal using WT has been presented. These results suggest that ultrasonic background noise ginal can be suppressed and enhanced even for SNR of 20.8 dB. This property of the WT is extremely useful for the detecting flaw echos embedded in background noise.und noise.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.483-488
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• 2016

Ultrasound imaging by using piezoelectric materials, such as lead zirconium titanate (PZT) has been one of the most preferred modes of imaging in the medical field due to its simple, low cost and non-ionizing radiation in comparison to other imaging techniques. Recently, the market demand for portable ultrasound is becoming larger with applications in developing countries, disaster area, military, and emergency purposes. However, most of ultrasound probes used is bulky and high power consumable, so unsuitable for such applications. In this study, the 3 layered ceramic specimen consisted of 128 pitches of $420{\mu}m$ in width and $450{\mu}m$ in thickness were prepared by using the Ti-rich PZT compositions co-fired at $1,050^{\circ}C$. Their electrical and ultrasound pulse-echo properties were investigated and compared to the single layer specimen. The 3 layered ultrasound probe showed 1.584 V of Vp-p, which is 3.2 times higher than single layered one, implying that it would allow effectively such a portable ultrasound probe system. The result were discussed in terms of higher capacitance, lower impedance and higher dielectric coefficient of the 3 layered ultrasound probe.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1652-1663
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• 2002

It is desirable to perform nondestructive evaluation to assess material properties and part homogeneity because manufacturing of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites requires complicated and costly processes. In this work several ultrasonic techniques were applied to carbon/carbon composites for the evaluation of spatial variations in material properties that are attributable to the manufacturing process. In a large carbon/carbon composite manufactured by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) method, the spatial variation of ultrasonic velocity was measured and found to be consistent with the densification behavior in CVI process in order to increase the density of C/C composites. Ultrasonic velocity and attenuation depend on a density variation of materials. Low frequency through-transmission scans based on both amplitude and time-of-flight of the ultrasonic pulse were used for mapping out the material property inhomogeneity These results were compared with that obtained by dry-coupling ultrasonics. Pulse-echo C-scans was used to image near-surface material property anomalies such as the placement of spacers between disks during CVI. Also, optical micrograph had been examined on the surface of C/C composites using a destructive way.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.54-62
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• 1991

The effect of tempering temperature on the ultrasonic propagation velocity at SCM 440 steel quenched from $870^{\circ}C$ and $1000^{\circ}C$ has been studied by metallurgical and crystallographical observation. The measurements of ultrasonic velocity were made on the specimen by appling an immersion ultrasonic pulse-echo technique with a constant frequency of 10 MHz. The quenched microstructure of this steel was a lath martensite. As the tempering temperature was increased, the martensite was transformed into the tempered martensite composed of cementite and carbide. The ultrasonic velocity increased with increasing the tempering temperature. It was thought that these were resulted from the microstructural transformation. The change of ultrasonic propagation velocity with quenching and tempering heat treatment was resulted from microstrain due to the change of internal stress. Considering these results concerning to the change of ultrasonic propagation velocity. the phenomena of microstructural transformation were estimated. Consequently, it was thought that the degree of quenching and tempered heat treatment of steel could be nondestructively evaluated with the change of ultrasonic propagation velocity.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.118-128
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• 1999

There are many ultrasonic measurement methods that are used in nondestructive testing applications. Some typical applications include material property determination, microstructural characterization. and flaw detection. Ultrasonic parameters such as velocity and attenuation are most commonly required in these applications. The accuracy and repeatability of testing results are dependent on both the hardware used to generate and receive the ultrasonic waves and on the analysis software for calculating these parameters. In this study, five analysis algorithms were implemented on a computer for measuring wave speed in a pulse echo. immersion testing configuration. In velocity measurements comparisons were made between the overlap. cross-correlation. Fourier transform. Hilbert transform, wavelet transform algorithms. Velocity measurement was applied to an isotropic steel sample using the five analysis algorithms. Frequency-dependent phase/group velocity and attenuation were also measured using the Fourier transform and wavelet transform algorithms on a composite laminate containing voids.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2008

Purpose : To investigate the feasibility and accuracy of Proton Resonance Frequency (PRF) shift based magnetic resonance (MR) temperature mapping utilizing the self-developed center array-sequencing phase unwrapping (PU) method for non-invasive temperature monitoring. Materials and Methods : The computer simulation was done on the PU algorithm for performance evaluation before further application to MR thermometry. The MR experiments were conducted in two approaches namely PU experiment, and temperature mapping experiment based on the PU technique with all the image postprocessing implemented in MATLAB. A 1.5T MR scanner employing a knee coil with $T2^*$ GRE (Gradient Recalled Echo) pulse sequence were used throughout the experiments. Various subjects such as water phantom, orange, and agarose gel phantom were used for the assessment of the self-developed PU algorithm. The MR temperature mapping experiment was initially attempted on the agarose gel phantom only with the application of a custom-made thermoregulating water pump as the heating source. Heat was generated to the phantom via hot water circulation whilst temperature variation was observed with T-type thermocouple. The PU program was implemented on the reconstructed wrapped phase images prior to map the temperature distribution of subjects. As the temperature change is directly proportional to the phase difference map, the absolute temperature could be estimated from the summation of the computed temperature difference with the measured ambient temperature of subjects. Results : The PU technique successfully recovered and removed the phase wrapping artifacts on MR phase images with various subjects by producing a smooth and continuous phase map thus producing a more reliable temperature map. Conclusion : This work presented a rapid, and robust self-developed center array-sequencing PU algorithm feasible for the application of MR temperature mapping according to the PRF phase shift property.