• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.215-232
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• 2016

This paper presents a multi helical ultrasonic imaging approach for quantitative corrosion damage monitoring of cylindrical structures. The approach consists of two stages. First a multi helical ultrasonic imaging (MHUI) algorithm is used to provide qualitative images of the structure of interest. Then, an optimization problem is solved in order to obtain quantitative damage information, such as thickness map. Experimental tests are carried out on a steel pipe instrumented with six piezoelectric transducers to validate the proposed approach. Three thickness recesses are considered to simulate corrosion damage. The results show the efficiency of the proposed approach for quantifying corrosion location, area and remnant thickness.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.356-364
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• 2017

Composite lattice structures are tried to be used in various fields because of its benefit in physical properties. With increase of demand of the composite lattice structure, nondestructive testing technology is also required to certificate the quality of the manufactured structures. Recently, research on the development of the composite lattice structure in Republic of Korea was started and accordingly, fast and accurate non-destructive evaluation technology was needed to finalize the manufacturing process. This paper studied non-destructive testing methods for composite lattice structure using laser ultrasonic propagation imaging systems. Pulse-echo ultrasonic propagation imaging system was able to inspect a rib structure wrapped with a skin structure. To reduce the time of inspection, a band divider, which can get signal in different frequency bands at once, was developed. Its performance was proved in an aluminum sandwich panel. In addition, to increase a quality of results, curvature compensating algorithm was developed. On the other hand, guided wave ultrasonic propagation imaging system was applied to inspect delamination in a rib structure. To increase an area of inspection, multi-source ultrasonic wave propagation image was applied, and defects were successfully highlighted with variable time window amplitude mapping algorithm. These imply that ultrasonic propagation imaging systems provides fast and accurate non-destructive testing results for composite lattice structure in a stage of the manufacturing process.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.42 no.3 s.303
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• pp.53-62
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• 2005

This paper proposes a method of measuring and visualizing the elasticity distribution of the human soft tissue to detect tumors or cancers which have been difficult to diagnose in conventional medical ultrasonic B-mode images. To measure the stiffness of soft tissue, first, pressure is applied to deform the tissue being imaged, and then the amount of mechanical displacement is determined from correlation coefficients obtained from ultrasonic data downconverted into the baseband. We confirmed the feasibility of imaging tissue stiffness by computer simulation and experiment.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.25 no.A
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• pp.87-93
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• 2005

Three-dimensional ultrasonic probes being applied to the medical imaging can be grouped into three depending on the scanning methods, which are a mechanical type system, a free-hand system, and 2D phased arrays system. A mechanical type scanner uses a mechanically driven transducer to acquire series of 2D plane images. By integrating these images, a 3-D medical image can be constructed. A motor driving mechanism is a conventional choice for mechanically driving a transducer assembly which picks the raw ultrasonic images up. In this paper we attempt to design a 3D ultrasonic probe which has a operating mechanism of s tilting 3-D scanning. The motion of a transducer assembly of the ultrasonic probe is analytically modelled. We propose a selection procedure for the diameter of a wire rope driving the transducer assembly and the size of torsional spring which gives an initial tension to wire ropes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.77-84
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• 2014

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.263-270
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• 2008

The performance of an ultrasonic array sensor is determined by the properties of constituent materials and the effects of many structural parameters. In this study, with the finite element method, variation of the performances of an ultrasonic array sensor was analyzed in relation to its structural variables. Based on the analysis result, the structure of the ultrasonic array sensor was optimized to provide the highest sensitivity while satisfying such requirements as fractional bandwidth, center frequency and -20 dB pulse length. The optimization was carried out with the SQP-PD method for a target function composed of the ultrasonic array sensor performance. The optimized ultrasonic array sensor satisfied all the required specifications to be applicable to medical imaging diagnosis. The design technology in this paper can be utilized for other ultrasonic array sensors of a similar structure.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.340-352
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• 2004

Acoustic streaming induced by the microscopic longitudinal ultrasonic vibration at 28.5 ㎑ is visualized between the quiescent glass plate and ultrasonic vibrator by particle imaging velocimetry(PIV) using laser. To investigate the augmentation of air flow velocity of acoustic streaming. the velocity variations of air streaming between the stationary plate and ultrasonic vibrator are measured in real-time. It is experimentally investigated that the magnitude of the acoustic streaming dependent upon the gap between the ultrasonic vibrator and stationary p1ate results in the variations of the average velocity fields as a outcome of the bulk air flow caused by the ultrasonic vibration. In addition. maximum acoustic streaming velocity exists at resonant gap. 18mm that is one of the resonant gaps (H=18, 24, 30, 36㎜) at which resonance occurs. The variation of the local maximum turbulent intensity with axial direction appear to reveal the value of 8%∼70% dependent upon the gap between the quiescent glass plate and ultrasonic vibrator. Shearstress is also maximized at the center region of the vibrator and the vorticity is also maximum and minimum in the neighborhood of the center of the vibrator at which the local maximum turbulent intensity and shear stress exist.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.389-397
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• 2015

Recently, wave propagation imaging based on laser scanning-generated elastic waves has been intensively used for nondestructive inspection. However, the proficiency of the conventional software based system reduces when the scan area is large since the processing time increases significantly due to unavoidable processor multitasking, where computing resources are shared with multiple processes. Hence, the field programmable gate array (FPGA) was introduced for a wave propagation imaging method in order to obtain extreme processing time reduction. An FPGA board was used for the design, implementing post-processing ultrasonic wave propagation imaging (UWPI). The results were compared with the conventional system and considerable improvement was observed, with at least 78% (scanning of $100{\times}100mm^2$ with 0.5 mm interval) to 87.5% (scanning of $200{\times}200mm^2$ with 0.5 mm interval) less processing time, strengthening the claim for the research. This new concept to implement FPGA technology into the UPI system will act as a break-through technology for full-scale automatic inspection.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.431-438
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• 2004

Medical ultrasonic imaging is a useful imaging facility known to be most safe and easy. It enables physicians to observe the inside structures of the bodies, blood flow, and motions of internal organs. Some physical properties of biologic tissues can also be estimated from backscattered sounds. However, the ultrasonic pulses interrogating the living organisms leave their footprints in the returning signals during imaging. Some significant details are buried in the footprints and their overlaps from adjacent particles. These distortions also decrease the quality of the images. Many research efforts have been made to enhance the image quality and to recover the acoustic information in various ways. In this study, a new interrogation method based on the wavelet and subband filter bank is proposed. It adopts the subband wavelet filters satisfying the perfect-reconstruction (PR) conditions as the interrogating pulses to restore the details useful in tissue characterization and to enhance the image quality. The proposed method was applied to two types of simulations of ultrasonic imaging. The results showed its ability to restore the detailsin the simulated interrogation of biologic tissues, and verified the improved image quality in the simulated imaging of general ultrasonic phantom compared with the conventional method.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1078-1088
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• 2010

In order to analyze the quantitative characteristics of acoustic streaming, experimental setup of 3-D stereoscopic PIV(particle imaging velocimetry) was designed and quantitative ultrasonic flow fields in the gap between the ultrasonic vibrator and heat source were measured. Utilizing acoustic streaming induced by ultrasonic vibration, surface temperature drop of cooling object was also measured. The study on smart cooling method by acoustic streaming induced by ultrasonic vibration was performed due to the empirical relations of flow pattern, average flow velocity, different gaps, and enhancement on cooling rates in the gap. Average velocity fields and maximum acoustic streaming velocity in the open gap between the stationary cylindrical heat source and ultrasonic vibrator were experimentally measured at no vibration, resonance, and non-resonance. It was clearly observed that the enhancement of cooling rates existed owing to the acoustic air flow in the gap at resonance and non-resonance induced by ultrasonic vibration. The ultrasonic wave propagating into air in the gap creates steady-state secondary eddy called acoustic streaming which enhances heat transfer from the heat source to encompassing air. The intensity of the acoustic streaming induced by ultrasonic vibration experimentally depended upon the gap between the heat source and ultrasonic vibrator. The ultrasonic vibration at resonance caused the increase of the acoustic streaming velocity and convective heat transfer augmentation when the flow fields by 3D stereoscopic PIV and temperature drop of the heat source were measured experimentally. The acoustic streaming velocity of air enhancement on cooling rates in the gap is maximal when the gap agrees with the multiples of half wavelength of the ultrasonic wave, which is specifically 12 mm.