• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.1233-1240
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• 1996

Conventional measurement methods using ultrasonic wave or x-ray, eddy current for non-destructive testing(NDT) in nuclear power plants and other industrial plants have been utilized as the method of contact with objects to be inspected. For this reason these methods require relatively much time and inspection area is limited by the location of probe or film. But holograpic interferometry which is a non-contact optical measurement method using a coherent light source has an advantage that quantative measurement can be performed at a time. In this paper a new method using realtime holographic interfreometry and image processing for detecting internal flaws of pressure vessels is presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.504-509
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• 2016

Defects in dissimilar metal welds are reported to be on the increase during the operating lifespan and aging of nuclear power plants. In Korea, reported cases of defects due to dissimilar metal welds include the drain nozzle of a steam generator and RCS hot tube sampling nozzles. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a reliable automated nondestructive inspection technique and a system for the inspection of dissimilar metal welds of small diameter nozzles in a high radiation area of a nuclear power plant. In this study, to ensure effective defect inspection of small diameter nozzles (RCS high-temperature tube sampling nozzle) of a nuclear power plant, three different methods were developed. These include: (1) optimum inspection probe design by beam simulation, (2) multi-directions UT optimum inspection technique for the inspection of small diameters of different welded parts, and (3) remote control automatic inspection system. The developed technique and systems have been verified to be suitable for use in the inspection of defects in smaller diameter nozzles in nuclear power plants.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2015

Photoacoustic microscopy is capable of providing high-resolution molecular images, and its spatial resolution is typically determined by ultrasonic transducers used to receive the photoacoustic signals. Therefore, ultrasonic transducers for photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) should have a high operating frequency, broad bandwidth, and high signal-reception efficiency. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is a suitable material. To take full advantage of this material, the selection of the backing material is crucial, as it influences the center frequency and bandwidth of the transducer. Therefore, we experimentally determined the most suitable backing material among EPO-TEK 301, E-Solder 3022, and RTV. For this, three PVDF high-frequency single-element transducers were fabricated with each backing material. The center frequency and -6 dB bandwidth of each transducer were ascertained by a pulse-echo test. The spatial resolution of each transducer was examined using wire-target images. The experimental results indicated that EPO-TEK 301 is the most suitable backing material for a PAM transducer. This material provides the highest signal magnitude and a reasonable bandwidth because a large portion of the energy propagates toward the front medium, and the PVDF resonates in the half-wave mode.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.573-580
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• 2004

The main goal of this study was to develop a micro-fabrication process for the capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT). In order to achieve this goal, the former research results of the micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) process for the cMUT were analyzed. The membrane deposition, sacrificial layer deposition and etching were found to be a main process of fabricating the cMUT. The optimal conditions for those microfabrication were determined by the experiment. The thickness, uniformity, and residual stress of the $Si_3N_3$ deposition which forms the membrane of the cMUT were characterized after growing the $Si_3N_3$ on Si-wafer under various process conditions. As a sacrificial layer, the growth rate of the $SiO_2$ deposition was analyzed under several process conditions. The optimal etching conditions of the sacrificial layer were analyzed. The microfabrication process developed in this study will be used to fabricate the cMUT.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.198-204
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• 2010

Modified 9Cr-1Mo steels possess excellent high-temperature mechanical properties and are widely used in energy conversion industries. However, in-service materials degradation, such as softening, carbide-induced embrittlement, temper embrittlement, etc., can take place during long-term operation. Evolution of microstructure due to service exposure to high temperature has a strong effect on the performance of heat resistant steels. In case of modified 9Cr-1Mo steels, precipitation of $Fe_2Mo$-type laves phases and coarsening of $M_{23}C_6$-type carbides are the primary cause of degradation of mechanical properties such as toughness, hardness, tensile strength and creep resistance. This study was aimed at finding reliable parameter for assessing the integrity of modified 9Cr-1Mo steels. Characteristic parameters were attained between mechanical and ultrasonic properties.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.485-492
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• 2009

The thermal fatigue crack(TFC) is one of the life-limiting mechanisms at the nuclear power plant operating conditions. In order to evaluate the structural integrity, various non-destructive test methods such as radiographic test, ultrasonic test and eddy current are used in the industrial field. However, these methods have restrictions that defect detection is possible after the crack growth. For this reason, acoustic emission testing(AET) is becoming one of powerful inspection methods, because AET has an advantage that possible to monitor the structure continuously. Generally, every mechanism that affects the integrity of the structure or equipment is a source of acoustic emission signal. Therefore the noise filtering is one of the major works to the almost AET researchers. In this study, acoustic emission signal was collected from the pipes which were in the successive thermal fatigue cycles. The data were filtered based on the results from previous experiments. Through the data analysis, the signal characteristics to distinguish the effective signal from the noises for the TFC were proven as the waveform difference. The experiment results provide preliminary information for the acoustic emission technique to the continuous monitoring of the structure failure detection.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.68-75
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• 1996

More accurate inspection method for facilities of nuclear power plants is required to guarantee the continuous and stable energy supply. The portion of inspection for pipes and pressure vessels is relatively big in the power plants. Conventional inspection methods using ultrasonic wave, x-ray and eddy current for nondestructive testing in nuclear power plants have been performed as the method of contact with objects to be inspected. With this reason these methods have been taken relatively much time, money and manpower. And the area to be inspected is limited by the location of probe or film. These difficulties make the inspection into a time-consuming work. We propose an optical defect detection method using phase shifting realtime holographic interferometry. This method has an advantage that the inspection can be performed at a time for relatively wide area illuminated by the laser beam, a coherent light source and can help an inspector recognize not only defects but also the high stressed areas. In this paper we show that the quantitative measurement using holographic interferometry and image processing for defect in pressure vessels is possible.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.292-300
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• 1993

Acoustical imaging has made brilliant progress in the medical science field, and has also made much progress in the nondestructive testing and under water acoustics applications since doctor Dussik brother has studied about possibilities of making images of brain by recording variations in the intensity of ultrasonic beam from head in 1937. In this paper an acoustical image is reconstructed with the power spectra analysed by impulse ultrasound wave generated by electrodynamic transducer(EDT). The EDT generates the impulse ultrasound of 77KHz in center frequency and 120KHz in bandwidth at -20dB by 1200V exciter in this experiment. The impulse ultrasound has the dominant frequency components of 47KHz, 177KHz, 110KHz and 155KHz. The U shape object is adopted in making an acoustical image. The resulted spectral acoustical images are different from the optical view of the U shape object. However the image reconstructed from 110KHz spectrum is very similar to the original optical shape of the object. Even KHz level impulse sound of 70$\mu$sec pulse width is found to be useful in reconstructing acoustical imaging improvement.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2001

Most of the acoustic microscopes have been constructed acoustic image by simply measuring the amplitude of the reflected signal from the specimen. This method fails to produce images of good quality because the change in amplitude is not sensitive enough to specimen with fine variation. In this paper, we have been constructed the acoustic microscope system which has been able to measure simultaneously the amplitude and phase of the reflected ultrasonic signal. And also we have been constructed the amplitude and phase images for the 500 won coin as a sample and the alumium spacimen with internal round defect, and compared and analyzed these images. In expermental result, the phase image have shown better sensitive than the amplitude image and given better contrast for the micro height variation of specimen. It will be expected that the phase image can be used as an additional bit of information to improve ambiguituities in amplitude image on nondestructive testing for specimen with fine variation.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.21-29
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• 1996

Industrial equipment, such as power plant, is required to operate reliably, continuously and economically under rather severe conditions of temperature, stress, and enbironment. To test structural integrity and fitness, ultrasonic nondestructive testing is used because of effectiveness and simplicity. In this paper, wavelet transform based least mean square(LMS) algorithm is applied to reduce the influence of the interference occurring between randomly positioned small scatters. The RUN test is performed to check the nonstationarity of the speckle noise signal. The performance of this new approach is compared with that of the time domain LMS algorithm by means of condition numbers, signal-to-noise ratio and 3-D image. As a result, the wavelet transform based LMS algorithm shows better performance than the time domain LMS algorithm in this experiment.