• 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 Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.6114-6118
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• 2013

This study examined the ultrasonic pulse reflection method(UPRM) for testing each ultrasonic pulse waveform model(UPWM) based on weld defects. The sharp crack of a clear signal was generated. The echo height of the defective probes changed according to the location. In a long crack in a circle around the defective probes, the Swivel scanning echo height when using the particle was reduced drastically. The peaks in the echo were thin because the needle was pointed. The porosity defects arising from a single echo was sharp and crisp, but a number of pores of the collective reflection overlapped and ajagged echo was observed. Slag, slag inclusions, cracks, and defects at the Swivel scan of each particle using the echo shape showed difference in the degree. Cracks were revealed as sudden changes in the echo height of the slag inclusions: increase ${\rightarrow}$ decrease ${\rightarrow}$ increase ${\rightarrow}$ decrease. In addition, the location of a number of defects in the dense pore geometry, such as a typical echo sundry, revealed the shape in the slag. Poor penetration of the defect echo, revealed the cracks to have a sharp-edged, crack-like shape with an echo.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.284-290
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• 1999

This paper describes a Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) modulator and demodulator and the experimented underwater data ommunication equipment to transfer the analog echo signal in real-time from an underwater vehicle to the mother ship. The system consists of an echo signal transfer unit equipped to the vehicle and an ultrasonic receiver equipped on the ship. The former includes an ultrasonic transceiver unit of 180kHz for echo detection and a continuous wave transmitter of 50kHz with a FSK modulator for echo transmission to the ship. The latter includes an ultrasonic receiver of 50kHz and the FSK demodulator. The results of experiment are as follows. 1. The characteristics of the FSK modulating and demodulating circuits designed with the use of C-MOS IC 4046 was good and confirmed its usefulness in underwater data communication system.2. The prototype ultrasonic transceiver unit shows profitable driving power while the pulse duration was short less than 3 msec, but it was found that the driving power is not sufficient while the long pulse duration or continuous wave is used. The gain of the ultrasonic receiver was 80 dB and the receiving bandwidth 700Hz (at - 3 dB point).3. It was found that the system designed by the author has some possibility to use in underwater echo transfer.4. At the FSK modulator, the widths of voltage and frequency which represent linearity were 3.5 V, 1600Hz, respectively, at the FSK demodulator 2.6 V, 700Hz, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.285-285
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• 1999

This paper describes a Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) modulator and demodulator and the experimented underwater data ommunication equipment to transfer the analog echo signal in real-time from an underwater vehicle to the mother ship. The system consists of an echo signal transfer unit equipped to the vehicle and an ultrasonic receiver equipped on the ship. The former includes an ultrasonic transceiver unit of 180kHz for echo detection and a continuous wave transmitter of 50kHz with a FSK modulator for echo transmission to the ship. The latter includes an ultrasonic receiver of 50kHz and the FSK demodulator. The results of experiment are as follows. 1. The characteristics of the FSK modulating and demodulating circuits designed with the use of C-MOS IC 4046 was good and confirmed its usefulness in underwater data communication system.2. The prototype ultrasonic transceiver unit shows profitable driving power while the pulse duration was short less than 3 msec, but it was found that the driving power is not sufficient while the long pulse duration or continuous wave is used. The gain of the ultrasonic receiver was 80 dB and the receiving bandwidth 700Hz (at - 3 dB point).3. It was found that the system designed by the author has some possibility to use in underwater echo transfer.4. At the FSK modulator, the widths of voltage and frequency which represent linearity were 3.5 V, 1600Hz, respectively, at the FSK demodulator 2.6 V, 700Hz, respectively.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.17-22
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• 2008

Recent developments in contactless, air-coupled sensing of seismic and ultrasonic waves in concrete structures are presented. Contactless sensing allows for rapid, efficient and consistent data collection over a large volume of material. Two inspection applications are discussed: air-coupled impact-echo scanning of concrete structures using seismically generated waves, and air-coupled imaging of internal damages in concrete using ultrasonic tomography. The first application aims to locate and characterize shallow delamination defects within concrete bridge decks. Impact-echo method is applied to scan defected concrete slabs using air coupled sensors. Next, efforts to apply air-coupled ultrasonic tomography to concrete damage imaging are discussed. Preliminary results are presented for air-coupled ultrasonic tomography applied to solid elements to locate internal defects. The results demonstrate that, with continued development, air-coupled ultrasonic tomography may provide improved evaluation of unseen material defects within structures.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.95-101
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• 2001

This work is concerned with construction of the intelligence stress predictor far compression strength evaluation using neural network-ultrasonic waves. The contact pressure in jointed plates was measured by using ultrasonic technique. Neural network is used to evaluate and predict contact pressure from the results of the calibration curves. The organized neural system was leaned with the accuracy of 99%, as a result of learning the ultrasonic echo ratio to the contact pressure measurement between SM45C and STS410 materials. And it could be evaluated and predicted with the accuracy of 90% in the evaluation of ultrasonic echo ratio difference in the same surface roughness and contact pressure, and 85% in the prediction of virtual ultrasonic echo ratio. Thus the proposed stress predictor is very useful for the evaluation and prediction of the contact pressure between SM45C and STS410 materials.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.288-292
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• 2016

In this paper, a novel ultrasonic propagation imaging system, called a full-field pulse-echo ultrasonic propagation imaging (FF PE UPI) system is introduced. The system nondestructively inspected targets with two-axis translation stage. The coincident laser beams for ultrasonic sensing and generation are scanned and pulse-echo mode laser ultrasounds are captured. This procedure makes it possible to generate full-field ultrasound in through-the-thickness direction as large as the scan area. Structural inspection results in the form of full-field ultrasonic wave propagation videos are introduced, which are painted sandwich control surfaces. In addition, the inspection results of FF PE UPI system are compared with conventional ultrasonic testing methods such as waterjet and portable C-scan.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.223-230
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• 2018

This study examines a non-contact laser scanning-based ultrasound system, called an angular scan pulse-echo ultrasonic propagation imager (A-PE-UPI), that uses coincided laser beams for ultrasonic sensing and generation. A laser Doppler vibrometer is used for sensing, while a diode pumped solid state (DPSS) Q-switched laser is used for generation of thermoelastic waves. A high-speed raster scanning of up to 10-kHz is achieved using a galvano-motorized mirror scanner that allows for coincided sensing and for the generation beam to perform two-dimensional scanning without causing any harm to the surface under inspection. This process allows for the visualization of longitudinal wave propagation through-the-thickness. A pulse-echo ultrasonic wave propagation imaging algorithm (PE-UWPI) is used for on-the-fly damage visualization of the structure. The presented system is very effective for high-speed, localized, non-contact, and non-destructive inspection of aerospace structures. The system is tested on an aluminum honeycomb sandwich with disbonds and a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) honeycomb sandwich with a layer overlap. Inspection is performed at a 10-kHz scanning speed that takes 16 seconds to scan a $100{\times}100mm^2$ area with a scan interval of 0.25 mm. Finally, a comparison is presented between angular-scanning and a linear-scanning-based pulse-echo UPI system. The results show that the proposed system can successfully visualize defects in the inspected specimens.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.621-626
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• 2002

The amplitude of a back-wall echo depends on the reflection coefficient of the interface between a transducer and a test material when using contact pulse-echo ultrasonic testing. A couplant is used to transmit ultrasonic energy across the interface, but has an influence on the amplitude of the pulse-echo signal. To investigate the couplant effect on pulse-echo ultrasonic testing, back-wall echoes are measured by using various couplants made of water and glycerine in a carbon and austenitic stainless steel specimens. The amplitude of the first back-wall echo and the apparent attenuation coefficient increases with the acoustic impedance of the couplant. The couplant having a higher value of the transmission coefficient is more effective for flaw detection. The reflection coefficient should be known in order to measure the attenuation coefficient of the test material.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.66-73
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• 2008

In this paper, ultrasonic range system which detects parking lot in parking area is studied. The important part for detecting parking lot accurately is to detect the first and second corners of possible parking lot, and for that, new method using multiple echo function is introduced in this paper. Many probabilistic methods have been used to reduce uncertainties of ultrasonic sensor for distance and location of objects. Method using multiple echo, however, gives accurates results as well as simple algorithm. For experiments in parking space, ultrasonic range system was attached to a Pioneer AT-2 and final parking space map was created in a fusion with position information from wheels of a Pioneer AT-2. We will show the results are compared with error of another methods.