• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to provide objective and basic data for an effective treatment method by examining changes in the mechanical properties of muscles and the degree of tenderness when a combination of stretching exercise and ultrasound therapy is applied to patients with tension headaches. Methods: The participants were classified into two groups based on the intervention received: the therapeutic ultrasound combined with suboccipital stretching (n=15, experimental group) and infrared combined with suboccipital stretching (n=15, control group) groups. The intragroup differences in mechanical muscle properties and modified total tenderness score were compared and analyzed. Results: The comparison and analyses of the changes in muscle tone and stiffness revealed statistically significant intragroup decreases in the upper trapezius and suboccipitalis in the experimental group. Similarly, the comparison and analyses of the changes in muscle stiffness revealed statistically significant intragroup decreases in the upper trapezius in the control group. Conclusion: Therapeutic ultrasound combined with suboccipitalis stretching effectively increased the flexibility of the muscles around the cervical vertebrae and reduced muscle tension and stiffness in tension-type headache patients

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.19-26
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• 2022

In droplet microfluidics, precise droplet manipulation is required in numerous applications. This study presents ultrasonic surface acoustic wave (USAW)-based microfluidic device for label-free droplet separation based on size. The proposed device is composed of a slanted-finger interdigital transducer on a piezoelectric substrate and a polydimethylsiloxane microchannel placed on the substrate. The microchannel is aligned in the cross-type configuration where the USAWs propagate in a perpendicular direction to the flow in the microchannel. When droplets are exposed to an acoustic field, they experience the USAW-induced acoustic radiation force (ARF), whose magnitude varies depending on the droplet size. We modeled the USAW-induced ARF based on ray acoustics and conducted a series of experiments to separate different-sized droplets. We found that the experimental results were in good agreement with the theoretical estimation. We believe that the proposed method will serve as a promising tool for size-based droplet separation in a label-free manner.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

In this investigation, Bi₂MoO₆ deposited graphene nanocomposite (BMG) was synthesized using a simple microwave assisted hydrothermal synthesis method. The synthesized BMG nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, and photocurrent analysis. The study revealed that the catalysts prepared have high crystalline nature, enhanced light responsive property, high catalytic activity, and good stability. XRD results of BMG composite exhibit a koechlinite phase of Bi₂MoO₆. The surface property is shown by SEM and TEM, which confirmed a homogenous composition in the bulk particles of Bi₂MoO₆ and nanosheets of graphene. The catalytic behavior was investigated by the decomposition of Rhodamine B as a standard dye. The results exhibit excellent yields of product derivatives at mild conditions under ultrasonic/visible light-medium. Approximately 1.6-times-enhanced sono-photocatalytic activity was observed by introduction of Bi₂MoO₆ on graphene nanosheet compared with control sample P25 during 50 min test.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.28-31
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• 2023

This study presents a comprehensive procedure for the low cycle fatigue test of ultrasonically welded (UW) coated conductor (CC) lap-joints. The entire process is examined in detail, from the robust fabrication of the UW REBCO CC joints to the reliability testing under a low number of repeated cycle fatigue conditions. A continuous I_c measurement system enables real-time monitoring of I_c variations throughout the fatigue tests. The study aims to provide a step-by-step procedure that involves joint fabrication, electromechanical property (EMP) tests under uniaxial tension for stress level determination, and subsequent low-cycle fatigue tests. The joints are fabricated using a hybrid method that combines UW with adding In-Sn soldering, achieving a flux-free hybrid welding approach (UW-HW flux-free). The selected conditions for the low cycle fatigue tests include a stress ratio of R=0.1 and a frequency of 0.02 Hz. The results reveal some insights into the fatigue behavior, irreversible changes, and cumulative damage in the CC joints.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1244-1249
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• 2024

A combination of flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) tests and corresponding computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tests were performed to determine the hydrodynamic parameters that could help predict the highly susceptible location to FAC in the elbow section. The accelerated FAC tests were performed on a specimen containing elbow sections fabricated using commercial 2-inch carbon steel pipe. The tests were conducted at flow rates of 9 m/s under the following conditions: water temperature of 150 ℃, dissolved oxygen <5 ppb, and pH 7. Thickness reduction of the specimen pipe due to FAC was measured using ultrasonic testing. CFD was conducted on the FAC test specimen, and the turbulence intensity, and shear stress were analyzed. Notably, the location of the maximum hydrodynamic parameters, that is, the wall shear stress and turbulent intensity, is also the same location with maximum FAC rate. Therefore, the shear stress and turbulence intensity can be used as hydrodynamic parameters that help predict the FAC-induced wall-thinning rate. The results provide a method to identify locations susceptible to FAC and can be useful for determining inspection priority in piping systems.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.5-12
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• 2005

Recently, geophysical prospecting methods have played very important roles in civil and environmental engineering problems. Technical advances in geophysical instruments and computer system made it possible to get underground images with very high resolution far purposes to resolve those problems. It was possible partly due to ever increasing demand for development of technologies needed to precisely detect polluted areas and prevent ground-related accidents. Based on the same demand, integrity tests of cast-in place piles draw more attention and development of accurate test procedures is required. Ultrasonic methods is one of most advanced non-destructive procedures. In the paper, a geotomography method is employed for the cast-in place pile integrity test using ultrasonic waves. The image of pile interior is scanned and scrutinized far better and more accurate decision in the cast-in place pile integrity. In this study, we firstly examined the accuracy fur tomography program with idealized synthetic models built in water tank: their position and size were changed in the tank and each case was studied. In the next stage, real concrete pile models were fabricated and images of anomaly areas inside the pile were scanned to successfully locate those areas.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.53-60
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• 2020

The bogies of railway vehicles are one of the most critical components for service. Fatigue defects in the bogie can be initiated for various reasons, such as material imperfection, welding defects, and unpredictable and excessive overloads during operation. To prevent the derailment of a railway vehicle, it is necessary to evaluate and detect the defect of a connection weldment between the car body and bogie accurately. The safety of the bogie weldment was checked using an ultrasonic test, and it is necessary to determine the occurrence of defects using a learning method. Recently, studies on deep learning have been performed to identify defects with a high recognition rate with respect to a fine and similar defect. In this paper, the databases of weldment specimens with artificial defects were constructed to detect the defect of a bogie weldment. The ultrasonic inspection using the wedge angle was performed to understand the detection ability of fatigue cracks. In addition, the convolutional neural network was applied to minimize human error during the inspection. The results showed that the defects of connection weldment between the car body and bogie could be classified with more than 99.98% accuracy using CNN, and the effectiveness can be verified in the case of an inspection.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.227-230
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to design and construct an ultrasound phantom for volume calibration and evaluate the volume measurement accuracy of a 2 dimensional ultrasonic system. Ultrasound phantom was designed, constructed and tested. The phantom consisted of a background material and a target. The background was made by mixing agarose gel with water. A target, made with an elastic material, was filled with water to vary its volume and shape and inserted into background material. To evaluate accuracy of a 2 dimensional ultrasonic system (128XP, ACUSON), three different shapes of targets (a sphere, 2 ellipsoids and a triangular prism) were constructed. In case of ellipsoid shape, two targets, one with same size length and width (ellipsoid 1) and another with the length 2 times longer than width (ellipsoid 2) were examined. The target volumes of each shape were varied from 94cc to 450cc and measurement accuracy was examined. The volume difference between the real and measured target of the sphere shape ranged between 6.7 and 11%. For the ellipsoid targets, the differences ranged from 9.2 to 10.5% with ellipsoid 1 and 25.7% with ellipsoid 2. The volume difference of the triangular prism target ranged between 20.8 and 35%. An easy and simple method of constructing an ultrasound phantom was introduced and it was possible to check the volume measurement accuracy of an ultrasound system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1044-1050
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• 2007

In this study, Bio-hydrogen is produced from organic waste mixtures containing food waste and waste activated sludge (WAS). The effects of different operational factor on hydrogen production, including various solubilization methods for pretreatments of WAS, pH and different ratios of food waste and WAS, were investigated. The highest hydrogen production values are obtained as 4.3 mL $H_2/g$ $VS_{consumed}$ in the case of applying the mixed pre-treatments of alkali and ultrasonic. The pH value in bio-reactor increased from 4 to 8 after the ultrasonic treatment with alkali and the hydrogen yield touched its highest value in the pH range of 5.0 to 5.5. Similarly, the hydrogen production reached the level of 13.8 mL $H_2/g$ $VS_{consumed}$ using the same pre-treatment method from the mixture of food waste and WAS. The ratio of 2 : 1 produced a maximum amount of hydrogen of 5.0 L $H_2/L/d$. The amount of volatile fatty acids(VFAs) including acetate, propionate and butyrate, were also varied considerably. Propionate decreased consistently with rising of hydrogen while butyrate comparing to acetate relatively increased in the effluent.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2010

This study evaluated the fatigue degradation in a SUS316L specimen using the nonlinear ultrasonic method. The nonlinearity of the ultrasonic wave was estimated by a relative nonlinear parameter defined as the ratio of the amplitudes for the fundamental wave to the second harmonic wave. In the experiment, a measurement system with contact transducers was constructed; reliable measurements were assured by keeping measurement conditions consistent and reducing extra harmonics generated in the measurement system. Two types of SUS316L specimen were used in experiments; a rotating bar fatigue specimen and a tensile fatigue specimen. The fatigue condition used was high cycle fatigue. The former specimen had a cylindrical shape and was used to observe the change in the nonlinear parameter after fatigue accumulation in a specimen. The latter was a plate-shaped specimen and was used to confirm the change in the nonlinear parameter at the position where the fatigue stress was concentrated. The measured nonlinear parameter showed a strong correlation to the damage level in both fatigue tests.