• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.501-510
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• 2000

Recently, advanced signal analysis which is called "time-frequency analysis" has been used widely in nondestructive evaluation applications. Wavelet transform(WT) and Wigner Distribution are the most advanced techniques for processing signals with time-varying spectra. Wavelet analysis method is an attractive technique for evaluation of material characterization nondestructively. Wavelet transform is applied to the time-frequency analysis of ultrasonic echo waveform obtained by an ultrasonic pulse-echo technique. In this study, the feasibility of noise suppression of ultrasonic flaw signal and frequency-dependent ultrasonic group velocity and attenuation coefficient using wavelet analysis of ultrasonic echo waveform have been verified experimentally. The Gabor function is adopted the analyzing wavelet. The wavelet analysis shows that the variations of ultrasonic group velocity and attenuation coefficient due to the change of material characterization can be evaluated at each frequency. Furthermore, to assure the enhancement of detectability and naw sizing performance, both computer simulated results and experimental measurements using wavelet signal processing are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the noise suppression of ultrasonic flaw signal obtained from austenitic stainless steel weld including EDM notch.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.11
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• pp.1887-1893
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• 2016

The VSA(Video Signal Analysis) method is the time-domain approach for estimating ultrasonic attenuation which utilizes the envelop signals from backscattered rf signals. The echogenicity of backscattered ultrasonic signals, however, from deeper depths are distorted when the broadband transmit pulse is used and it degrades the estimation accuracy of attenuation coefficients. We propose the modified VSA method using adaptive bandpass filters according to the centroid shift of echo signals as a pulse propagates. The technique of dual-reference diffraction compensation is also proposed to minimize the estimation errors because the difference of attenuation properties between the reference and sample aggravates the estimation accuracy when the differences are accumulated in deeper depth. The proposed techniques minimize the distortion of relative echogenicity and maximize the signal-to-noise ratio at the given depth. Simulation results for numerical tissue-mimicking phantoms show that the Rectangular-shaped filter with the appropriate center frequency exhibits the best estimation performance and the technique of the dual-reference diffraction compensation dramatically improves accuracy for the region after the beam focus.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2017

The three dimensional ultrasonic anemometer was constructed to reduce the disadvantages of the two-dimensional anemometer and to be free from the use environment. Three pairs of transmitting and receiving ultrasonic sensors were designed to face each other at an angle of $45^{\circ}$ to the upper and lower surfaces at intervals of $120^{\circ}$. 200 kHz ultrasonic sensor Oscillation, transmission and reception, level detection, power supply circuit were designed and U, V, W wind speed vector components were obtained by measuring the time of first received ultrasonic pulse by transmitting pulse ultrasound. It is implemented as firmware in ARM Coretex-M3 processor so that horizontal and vertical wind direction and wind speed can be converted into digital signal by vector calculation. In this study, The three-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer can complement the disadvantages of the two-dimensional anemometer (mechanical and ultrasonic), and it is expected to gradually replace the two-dimensional anemometer due to its high utilization rate by collecting additional information such as vertical wind.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2001

An ultrasonic test method, as a nondestructive test is applied to ensure the clad interface quality assessment. According to the reference codes and standards, not only korea Industrial Standard(KS) but also American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard, ultrasonic examination procedures use the pulse-echo, A-scan, back reflection signal drop method and/or side drilled reference hole used to establish the acceptance criteria of clad material test. But the variety of bonding materials and sizes makes it difficult to produce the reference blocks, or thus the criteria. In order to overcome these practical difficulties, new ultrasonic testing criterion is suggested. In this new method, the theoretical interface reflection signal amplitude level is calculated and suggested as an acceptance criteria with the back reflection signal set to 100% FSH(Full Screen Height) which is based on acoustic impedance mismatch at the clad interface for the explosive clad ultrasonic inspection. Applicability of suggested criterion, for the explosive clad Fe-Naval Brass with different bonding quality is confirmed to the pre-existed KS and ASTM specifications and verified by using SEM (Seanning Electron Microscope) micrograph. The results obtained by the suggested method is more conservative than the results according to the KS B 0234 and ASTM A 578 specifications The suggested method could be applicable to any other combination of explosive clad ultrasonic inspection.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.93-99
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• 2017

In this research the TOF (time of flight) of ultrasonic signal is measured using Xilinx's Zynq SoC (system on chip). The TOF is calculated from the difference between periods during which RF (radio frequency) and ultrasonic signals come across a distance, and then travelling distance is obtained by multiplying the TOF by the ultrasonic speed in the air. For this purpose, a ultrasonic pulse is generated from a Zynq's internal ADC, a FIR (finite impulse response) filter, and a Kalman filter. And a RF reference pulse is generated from a RF interface. Based on baremetal multiprocessing, the Kalman filter and the RF interface are c-programmed on Zynq's dual processor cores, with other components fabricated on Zynq's FPGA. With this HW/SW co-design, both lower resource utilization and much smaller designing period were obtained than the HW design. As a design tool, Vivado IDE(integrated design environment) is used to design the whole signal processing system in hierarchical block diagrams.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.8
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• pp.1250-1256
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• 2017

In this research, a high-performance ultrasonic positioning system is proposed to track the positions of an indoor mobile object. Composed of an ultrasonic sender (mobile object) and a receiver (anchor), the system employs three ultrasonic time-off-flights (TOFs) and trilateration to estimate the positions of the object with an accuracy of sub-centimeter. On the other hand, because ultrasonic waves are interfered by temperature, wind and various obstacles obstructing the propagation while propagating in air, ultrasonic pulse debounce technique and Kalman filter were applied to TOF and position calculation, respectively, to compensate for the interference and to obtain more accurate moving object position. To perform tasks in real time, ultrasonic signals are processed full-digitally with a Zynq SoC, and as a software design tool, Vivado IDE(integrated design environment) is used to design the whole signal processing system in hierarchical block diagrams. And, a hardware/software co-design is implemented, where the digital circuit portion is designed in the Zynq's fpga and the software portion is c-coded in the Zynq's processors by using the baremetal multiprocessing scheme in which the c-codes are distributed to dual-core processors, cpu0 and cpu1. To verify the usefulness of the proposed system, experiments were performed and the results were analyzed, and it was confirmed that the moving object could be tracked with accuracy of sub-cm.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2007

The energy efficiency of a self-powered wireless sensing system for pressure monitoring in injection molding is analyzed using Bond graph models. The sensing system, located within the mold cavity, consists of an energy converter, an energy modulator, and a ultrasonic signal transmitter. Pressure variation in the mold cavity is extracted by the energy converter and transmitted through the mold steel to a signal receiver located outside of the mold, in the form of ultrasound pulse trains. Through Bond graph models, the energy efficiency of the sensing system is characterized as a function of the configuration of a piezoceramic stack within the energy converter, the pulsing cycle of the energy modulator, and the thicknesses of the various layers that make up the ultrasonic signal transmitter. The obtained energy models are subsequently utilized to identify the minimum level of signal intensity required to ensure successful detection of the ultrasound pulse trains by the signal receiver. The Bond graph models established have shown to be useful in optimizing the design of the various constituent components within the sensing system to achieve high energy conversion efficiency under a compact size, which are critical to successful embedment within the mold structure.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.73-81
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• 1999

Measurements of ultrasonic signals caused by partial discharges were perlonnrl by using an ultrasonic measurement technique to diagnose the electrical treeing deterioration in an epoxy mold-type power transformer. We also examined the characteristics of tree growth, partial discharge magnitude and ultrasonic pulse number with the increase of the deterioration time. From these results, it was found that the shape of the tree was a branch-type, and the rates of the tree growth were examined when ac voltages of 16[kV] and 20[kV] were applied Ultrasonic pulse number and discharge magnitude were rapidly increased as the length of the tree grows after the middle stage of the deterioration time, and it appeared that ultrasonic pulse number was proportional to discharge magnitude. Attenuation, time-delaying and directivity characteristics of ultrasonic signals propagated into epoxy resin by using ultrasonic oscillation and receiving systems are also re[prted as a basic data of ultrasonic mesasurements in mold-type power transformer.former.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 2000

In this paper, we have introduced the feature extraction for the ultrasonic signal analysis of the undamaged and damaged concrete specimens. Since the concrete has the heterogeneous nature by itself, it has been difficult to classify the feature with using ultrasonic signal which is acquired from the undamaged and damaged concrete specimens. Therefore, in this paper, we proposed the combinational analysis which is using both the damage coefficient and the number of zerocrossing for the feature extraction. And the pulse velocity method and the damage coefficient, which was proposed by Suaris, were reviewed. In this experiment, two types of concrete specimen have been considered: 180kg/㎠ and 240kg/㎠. The ultrasonic signals were acquired in normal direction. As a result, it has been that combinational analysis method, which is proposed in this paper, shows the better performance than the traditional ultrasonic pulse velocity method and the damage coefficient using maximum amplitude of the ultrasonic signal in the feature extraction.

• 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.