• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.352-357
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• 2008

The detection of micro cracks in materials at the early stage of fracture is important in many structural safety assurance problems. The nonlinear ultrasonic technique (NUT) has been considered as a positive method for this, since it is more sensitive to micro crack than conventional linear ultrasonic methods. The basic principle is that the waveform is distorted by nonlinear stress-displacement relationship on the crack interface when the ultrasonic wave transmits through, and resultantly higher order harmonics are generated. This phenomenon is called the contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN). The purpose of this paper is to prove the applicability of CAN experimentally by detection of micro fatigue crack artificailly initiated in Aluminum specimen. For this, we prepared fatigue specimens of Al6061 material with V-notch to initiate the crack, and the amplitude of second order harmonic was measured by scanning along the crack direction. From the results, we could see that the harmonic amplitude had good correlation with COD and it can be used to detect the crack depth in more accurately than the common 6 dB drop echo method.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.91-102
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• 2015

The iridium disc, generally used in industrial radiography, is examined to find the fracture morphology and fine particles remaining on the shear blank surface. Randomly selected 1,200 discs were observed under a scanning electron microscope tilted more than $45^{\circ}$. Fracture surfaces are classified into three groups: (1) surface fall-out, (2) fracture on the edge and (3) multi-step brittle fracture, which shows the mutual relationship between the fracture morphology and remaining particles. Fracture particles were removed by cleaning the discs in a ultrasonic bath with acetone and collected at the bottom. Removed number of the particles were counted for each different group of fracture surfaces. Followings are conclusions: (1) About 80.5% of discs (966/1,200), have sound plastic shear surfaces with particles remained. (2) About 2% discs accompany surface fall-out's having large particles tens of ${\mu}m$, which is stable not to be pulled out even after the considerably long time of ultrasonic cleaning. (3) About 5% discs contain the fractures on the edge and the particles are removed thoroughly within 30 minutes. (4) 234 discs out of 1,200 discs have multi-step fracture surfaces whose particles never removed in a short period of time but come out very slowly. Such a disc having multiple-step fracture is attributed to the promate cause to the 'leaker'. It is noted here that the discs having mutiple-step fractures should be treated separately with special care, and it is need to study how to treat them.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2019

This work proposes a noncontact ultrasonic transducer for detecting wall-thinning of containment liner plates of nuclear power plants by measuring their thickness without physical contact. Because the containment liner plate is designed to prevent atmospheric leakage of radioactive substances under severe nuclear accident, its wall-thinning inspection is important for safety of nuclear power plants. Wall-thinning investigation of containment liner plates have been carried out by measuring their thickness with contact-type ultrasonic thickness gauge by inspectors and needs a lot of time and cost. As an alternative, an electromagnetic acoustic transducer measuring precisely thickness of containment liner plates without any physical contact or couplant was suggested in this research. A transducer generating and measuring shear ultrasonic waves in thickness direction was designed and wave field produced by the transducer was analyzed to verify the design. The working performance of the suggested transducer was tested with carbon steel plate specimens with various thicknesses. The test result shows that the proposed transducer can measure thickness of the specimens precisely without any couplant and implies that swift scanning of wall-thinning of containment liner plates will be possible with the proposed transducer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.518-524
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• 2004

The feasibility of Y(z) curve method of scanning acoustic microscope using high frequency transducer was experimentally studied for assessment of the thermal degradation in Co-based superalloy. Thermal degradation was performed to simulate the microstructural changes in Co-based superalloy arising from long term exposure at high temperature. Longitudinal wave velocity measured by pulse echo method using 10MHz transducer and leaky surface acoustic wave (LSAW) velocity measured by V(z) curve method using 200MHE transducer were measured to investigate the effect on thermal degradation. Ultrasonic velocity decreased as the aging time increased in both ultrasonic waves. Moreover, the low frequency longitudinal wave velocity decreased a little. Otherwise, the high frequency LSAW velocity drastically decreased up to a maximum of 4.7% at the aging time of 4,000hours. A good correlation was found between LSAW and Vickers hardness. Consequently, V(z) curve method of SAM using high frequency transducer could be a potential tool for assessing thermal degradation.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.88-94
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• 2012

Purpose: The use of appropriate instruments to clean surfaces with minimal change, is critical for the successful maintenance of a dental implant. However, there is no consensus about the type and methodology for such instruments. The aim of this study was to characterize changes in the roughness of titanium surfaces treated by various scaling instruments. Methods: Thirty-seven identical disks (5 mm in diameter) were investigated in this study. The specimens were divided into eight groups according to the types of instrumentation and the angle of application. Ultrasonic scaling systems were applied on a titanium disk to simulate standard clinical conditions. The equipment included a piezoelectric ultrasonic scaler with a newly developed metallic tip (NS group), a piezoelectric ultrasonic scaler with a conventional tip (CS group), a piezoelectric root planer ultrasonic scaler with a conventional tip (PR group), and a plastic hand curette (PH group). In addition, the sites treated using piezoelectric ultrasonic scaler systems were divided two sub-groups: 15 and 45 degrees. The treated titanium surfaces were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the average surface roughness (Ra) and mean roughness profile depth (Rz) were measured with a profilometer. Results: SEM no significant changes in the titanium surfaces in the NS group, regardless of the angle of application. The PH group also showed no marked changes to the titanium surface, although some smoothening was observed. All CS and PR sites lost their original texture and showed irregular surfaces in SEM analysis. The profilometer analysis demonstrated that the roughness values (Ra and Rz) of the titanium surfaces increased in all, except the PH and NS groups, which showed roughness decreases relative to the untreated control group. The Ra value differed significantly between the NS and PR groups (P<0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that changes in or damage to titanium surfaces might be more affected by the hardness of the scaler tip than by the application method. Within the limitations of this study, the newly developed metallic scaler tip might be especially suitable for peri-implant surface decontamination, due to its limited effects on the titanium surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.464-474
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• 2003

Ultrasonic imaging of 3-D structures for nondestructive evaluation must provide readily recognizable images with enough details to clearly show various flaws that may or may not be present. Typical flaws that need to be detected are miniature cracks, for instance, in metal pipes having aged over years of operation in nuclear power plants; and these sub-millimeter cracks or flaws must be depicted in the final 3-D image for a meaningful evaluation. As a step towards improving conspicuity and thus detection of flaws, we propose a pulse-echo ultrasonic imaging technique to generate various 3-D views of the 3-D object under evaluation through strategic scanning and processing of the pulse-echo data. We employ a 2-D Wiener filter that filters the pulse-echo data along the plane orthogonal to the beam propagation so that ultrasonic beams can be sharpened. This three-dimensional processing and display coupled with 3-D manipulation capabilities by which users are able to pan and rotate the 3-D structure improve conspicuity of flaws. Providing such manipulation operations allow a clear depiction of the size and the location of various flaws in 3-D.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.267-275
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• 2012

Austenite stainless steel 304 has properties of high resistance to corrosion and temperature changes. Therefore, this material is widely used in various of industries. However, when the material is subjected to heating and cooling cycles the forming accuracy, for example, the right angle associated with a sharp bend such as corner is lost. This phenomenon is caused by the reversion of the deformation-induced martensite into austenite when the temperature in increased. This result in misfit of a structure or an assembly, and an increase in residual stress. Hence, it is important to understand this process. In this study, to evaluate the mechanical behavior of the deformation-induced martensite and reversed austenite, a scanning acoustic spectroscope including the capability of obtaining both phase and amplitude of the ultrasonic wave (i.e., the complex V(z) curve method) was used. Then, the velocities of the SAW propagating within the specimens made in different conditions were measured. The experimental differences of the SAW velocities obtained in this experiment were ranging from 2,750 m/s to 2,850 m/s, and the theoretical difference was 3.6% under the assumption that the SAW velocity was 2,800 m/s. The error became smaller as the martensite content was increased. Therefore, the SAW velocity may be a probe to estimate the marternsite content.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.401-407
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• 2017

This paper describes wavenumber filtering for damage detection using single-frequency standing wave excitation and laser scanning sensing. An embedded piezoelectric sensor generates ultrasonic standing waves, and the responses are measured using a laser Doppler vibrometer and mirror tilting device. After scanning, newly developed damage detection techniques based on wavenumber filtering are applied to the full standing wave field. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed techniques, several experiments were performed on composite plates with delamination and aluminum plates with corrosion damage. The results demonstrated that the developed techniques could be applied to various structures to localize the damage, with the potential to improve the damage detection capability at a high interrogation speed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.437-443
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• 2010

In recent years, as nano scale structured thin film technology has emerged in various fields such as the materials, biomedical and acoustic sciences, the quantitative nondestructive adhesion evaluation of thin film interfaces using ultra high frequency scanning acoustic microscopy(SAM) has become an important issue in terms of the longevity and durability of thin film devices. In this study, an effective technique for investigating the interfaces of nano scale structured thin film systems is described, based on the focusing of ultrasonic waves, the generation of leaky surface acoustic waves(LSAWs), V(z) curve simulation and ultra high frequency acoustical imaging_ Computer simulations of the V(z) curve were performed to estimate the sensitivity of detection of micro flaws(i.e., delamination) in a thin film system. Finally, experiments were conducted to confirm that a SAM system operating at a frequency of 1 GHz can be useful to visualize the micro flaws in nano structured thin film systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2003

In order to replace the manual ultrasonic testing(UT) with an automated UT(AUT), a scanner which enables us to control the positions of a transducer is essential. Encoders have been commonly used to obtain the position information from the conventional scanners controlled by motor. Encoders have various advantages in many aspects. However, if the slip of motor wheel occurs during scanning, various errors are involved in the position accuracy. Thus, the position information of encoders becomes meaningless in case of slip. The reliability of AUT results nay become serious problem. Hence, slip must be avoided, but it can not be completely avoided at present time. In this paper, a new idea that surface wave is used to solve this problem and replace encoders has been proposed. It is shown that this idea can be employed in AUT scanner without encoders. That is, one transducer transmitting surface wave is fixed and the other transducer attached to the scanner receives UT signal. Then, computer calculates the present position of scanner based on the information given by surface wave. Thus, the movement of a scanner can be controlled by the amount of input based on the information obtained.