• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.76 no.5
• /
• pp.591-598
• /
• 2020

Ultrasonic waves provide a non-destructive and sensitive way to monitor the concrete hydration. However, limited works are reported to monitor the evolution of the mechanical parameter at early ages. In this study, modified piezoelectric aggregates are embedded inside a concrete beam to excite and receive primary waves. A hydration index, namely, the variation of ultrasonic waveform (VUW) is developed to characterize the variation of the transmitted waves during the hydration process. The recorded hydration indices are compared with the compressive strength measured by destructive test at different ages. The results show that the VUW is closer to the compressive strength than the other two traditional hydration indices, ultrasonic velocity and wave packet energy. The proposed VUW provides a simple and accurate way to monitor the concrete hydration at early ages.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.6
• /
• pp.1846-1857
• /
• 2021

Ultrasonic nondestructive testing is important for monitoring the structural integrity of dissimilar metal welds (DMWs) in pressure vessels and piping in nuclear power plants. However, there is a low probability of crack detection via inspection of DMWs using ultrasonic waves because the grain structures (grain orientations) of the weld area cause distortion and splitting of ultrasonic beams propagating in anisotropic media. To overcome this issue, the grain orientation should be known, and a precise ultrasonic wave simulation technique in anisotropic media is required to model the distortion and splitting of the waves accurately. In this study, a method for nondestructive prediction of the DMW grain orientations is presented for accurate simulation of ultrasonic wave propagation behavior in the weld area. The ultrasonic wave propagation behavior in anisotropic media is simulated via finite-element analysis when ultrasonic waves propagate in a transversely isotropic material. In addition, a methodology to predict the DMW grain orientation is proposed that employs a simulation technique for ultrasonic wave propagation behavior calculation and an optimization technique. The simulated ultrasonic wave behaviors with the grain orientations predicted via the proposed method demonstrate its usefulness. Moreover, the method can be used to determine the focal law in DMWs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.75 no.4
• /
• pp.435-444
• /
• 2020

Ultrasonic guided wave testing is a very promising non-destructive testing method for rails, which is of great significance for ensuring the safe operation of railways. On the basis of the semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) method, a analytical model of 59R2 grooved rail was proposed, which is commonly used in the ballastless track of modern tram. The dispersion curves of ultrasonic guided waves in free rail and supported rail were obtained. Sensitivity analysis was then undertaken to evaluate the effect of rail elastic modulus on the phase velocity and group velocity dispersion curves of ultrasonic guided waves. The optimal guided wave mode, optimal excitation point and excitation direction suitable for detecting rail integrity were identified by analyzing the frequency, number of modes, and mode shapes. A sinusoidal signal modulated by a Hanning window with a center frequency of 25 kHz was used as the excitation source, and the propagation characteristics of high-frequency ultrasonic guided waves in the rail were obtained. The results show that the rail pad has a relatively little influence on the dispersion curves of ultrasonic guided waves in the high frequency band, and has a relatively large influence on the dispersion curves of ultrasonic guided waves in the low frequency band below 4 kHz. The rail elastic modulus has significant influence on the phase velocity in the high frequency band, while the group velocity is greatly affected by the rail elastic modulus in the low frequency band.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.407-413
• /
• 2015

Research for renewable energy is being performed since it has the merits of little pollution of the environment and sustainable energy resources. Microalgae is attractive as a renewable energy resource. Biomass of the microalgae can be produced by mass culturing, and bulk harvest technology of is needed to produce biomass continuously. Recently, ultrasonic waves were used to harvest the cultivated microalgae continuously. In this study, the separation process using ultrasonic waves was performed to effectively harvest the microalgae. An ultrasonic wave separation resonator was designed and manufactured based on the acoustic field analysis. Separation experiments using design of experiment were carried out, and the influence of experimental variables from the ultrasonic wave separation process was investigated. Mixing conditions of variables were estimated to obtain high separation efficiency and a large microalgae harvest. Experimental results for suitable mixing conditions were compared with simulation results calculated from the state equation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2004.04a
• /
• pp.143-146
• /
• 2004

Fiber reinforced plastic material should be inspected in fabrication process in order to enhance quality by prevent defects such as delamination and void. Generally, ultrasonic technique is widely used to evaluate FRP. In conventional ultrasonic techniques, transducer should be contacted on FRP. However, conventional contacting method could not be applied in fabrication process and novel non-contact evaluating technique was required. Laser-based ultrasonic technique was tried to evaluate FRP plate. Laser-based ultrasonic waves propagated on CFRP were received with various transducers such as accelerometer and AE sensor in order to evaluated the properties of waves due to the variation of frequency. Velocities of laser-based ultrasonic waves were evaluated for various fiber orientation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.138-148
• /
• 2016

Measurement of elastic constants is crucial for engineering aspects of predicting the behavior of materials under load as well as structural health monitoring of material degradation. Ultrasonic velocity measurement for material properties has been broadly used as a nondestructive evaluation method for material characterization. In particular, pulse-echo method has been extensively utilized as it is not only simple but also effective when only one side of the inspected objects is accessible. However, the conventional technique in this approach measures longitudinal and shear waves individually to obtain their velocities. This produces a set of two data for each measurement. This paper proposes a simultaneous sensing system of longitudinal waves and shear waves for elastic constant measurement. The proposed system senses both these waves simultaneously as a single overlapped signal, which is then analyzed to calculate both the ultrasonic velocities for obtaining elastic constants. Therefore, this system requires just half the number of data to obtain elastic constants compared to the conventional individual measurement. The results of the proposed simultaneous measurement had smaller standard deviations than those in the individual measurement. These results validate that the proposed approach improves the efficiency and reliability of ultrasonic elastic constant measurement by reducing the complexity of the measurement system, its operating procedures, and the number of data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2003.06a
• /
• pp.1046-1050
• /
• 2003

In this paper, we describe study on the development or multi-path ultrasonic gas flowmeter using a transit time method. This system includes 5 pairs of ultrasonic transducers. ultrasonic signal processing unit using switch matrix method, computation algorithm of gas flow rate, spool piece type multi-path pipe unit. We have developed enhanced type of main ultrasonic signal processing unit using switch matrix method fer multi-path ultrasonic gas flowmeter. Also, we have developed the new transmitting ＆ receiving method of ultrasonic waves and the new signal processing algorithm for the computation of ultrasonic transit time from received ultrasonic waves. In this study, we have designed more compact signal processing unit compared with the conventional hardware system of multi-path ultrasonic gas flowmeter. We have confirmed its reliability for multi-path ultrasonic gas flowmeter through the laboratory test using calibration system. In the future. we will perform the field test for the developed system in the POSCO gas line.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.117-123
• /
• 2009

This paper presents a numerical simulation of guided ultrasonic waves propagating in aluminum-epoxy-aluminum adhesive plates. In particular, this study investigated the effect of the epoxy thickness on the dispersive patterns, such as the phase velocity and group velocity of guided ultrasonic waves. In addition to investigating the dispersive curves, a numerical simulation using the pulse-echo method was carried out. This simulation showed that the degree of sensitivity of the epoxy thickness is dependent on the curvature of the phase and group dispersion curves, the maximum amplitude of the received time signals, and the peak frequency of the real components of the Fourier transform. Then, the linear relations between the epoxy thickness and the received and transformed signals were constructed to estimate the epoxy thickness.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.140-145
• /
• 2010

This study presents a detection method for mechanically fabricated defects on underwater steel pipes, using ultrasonic guided waves. Three different diameters (60, 90, and 114 mm) of 1000-mm long steel pipes were considered, along with several experimental design factors such as incident angles, incident distances, and the degrees of defects, to investigate how these factors affected the experimental results - the detectability of the mechanical defects. From the experimental results, we determined that the amplitude and arrival time of the first received wave signals gave a promising clue for distinguishing the existence of the defects and their severities. Between the amplitude and arrival time, the arrival time gave a more promising indication since it was affected by the experimental factors in a constant manner. Therefore, it was shown that the use of ultrasonic guided waves for underwater pipe inspection is feasible.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2001.10a
• /
• pp.109.4-109
• /
• 2001

We have developed a laser ultrasonic system for visualization of elastic waves propagating on a solid surface, in order to visualize ultrasonic waves propagating on opaque media. This system can produce a series of successive images as an animation of wave propagation, because of scanning an optical heterodyne probe to measure surface transient displacements. Using this visualization technique, we observed the scattering and diffraction of ultrasonic waves around various shapes of artificial defects, and examined its application to nondestructive inspection. This imaging system provides various kinds of visualization images such as propagation image, amplitude image, arrival time image and velocity image. We have been confident that this technique is available for nondestructive inspection and materials ...