• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.297-309
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• 2012

As a result of the medium coupling, propagation characteristics of ultrasonic waves guided by a multi-phase medium can be different from those in a homogeneous system. This phenomenon becomes prominent for a medium consisting of phases with considerably distinct material and physical properties (e.g., submerged structures or human bones covered with soft tissues). In this study, the coupling effect arising from both fluid and soft tissues on wave propagation in engineering structures and human bone phantoms, respectively, was explored and calibrated quantitatively, with a purpose of enhancing the precision of ultrasonic-wave-based non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and clinical quantitative ultrasound (QUS). Calibration results were used to rectify conventional NDE during evaluation of corrosion in a submerged aluminium plate, and QUS during prediction of simulated healing status of a mimicked bone fracture. The results demonstrated that with the coupling effect being appropriately taken into account, the precision of NDE and QUS could be improved.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.2E
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• pp.18-23
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• 1999

This paper proposes a method of separately determining three intrinsic mechanical parameters of an unknown object in the framework of ultrasound inverse scattering tomography. Those parameters are the speed of sound, density, and absorption whose values are given as the solution of an inhomogeneous Helmholtz wave equation. The separate reconstruction method is mathematically formulated, the integral equations are discretized using the sinc basis functions, and the Newton-Raphson method is adopted as a numerical solver in a measurement configuration where the object is insonified by an incident plane wave over 360˚ and the scattered field is measured by detectors arranged in a rectangular fashion around it. Two distinct frequencies are used to separate each parameter of three Gaussian objects that are either located at the same position or separately from each other. Computer simulation results show that the separate reconstruction method is able to separately reconstruct the three mechanical parameters. The absorption parameter turns out to be a little difficult to reconstruct as compared with the other two parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.867-876
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• 2019

Second harmonic generation using nonlinear ultrasonic waves have been shown to be an early indicator of possible fatigue damage in nuclear power plant components. This technique relies on measuring amplitudes, making it highly susceptible to variations in transducer coupling and instrumentation. This paper proposes an experimental procedure for in-situ surface wave nonlinear ultrasound measurements on specimen with permanently mounted transducers under high cycle fatigue loading without interrupting the experiment. It allows continuous monitoring and minimizes variation due to transducer coupling. Moreover, relations describing the effects of the measurement system nonlinearity including the effects of the material transfer function on the measured nonlinearity parameter are derived. An in-situ high cycle fatigue test was conducted using two 304 stainless steel specimens with two different excitation frequencies. A comprehensive analysis of the nonlinear sources, which result in variations in the measured nonlinearity parameters, was performed and the effects of the system nonlinearities are explained and identified. In both specimens, monotonic trend was observed in nonlinear parameter when the value of fundamental amplitude was not changing.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.40-45
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• 2008

Therapeutic ultrasound which is developed for rehabilitation therapy have already been used for healing joint contracture, synechia, acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. Medical devices for pain-relief and healing using therapeutic ultrasound are actively being developed. This study measured the change of PTT with the transmitted ultrasound through the human body to find out the increase of compliance of blood vessels. Measurement method of PTT in this study is employed as useful ways to acquire physiological information of patients in the clinical case in order to measure the change of mechanical characteristics of blood vessels. This study confirmed the PTT change of rehabilitation patients through the thermal effects of ultrasound by using PTT and also found that it is possible to increase PTT by adjusting the warm water and ultrasound. The increase of PTT means the decrease of the pulse wave velocity from the cardiovascular system to the peripheral arteries. The physiological effects occurred using the warm water and ultrasound.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 2018

Automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) equipment is a new innovative technique for 3D automatic breast scanning, but limited for the examination in the concave axillary region. The purpose of this study was to determine feasible candidate materials for the ultrasonic wave propagation media in ABUS, enabling the evaluation of the axillary region. Ultrasonography was performed using an ABUS system ($Invenia^{TM}ABUS$, GE, USA) on the ultrasound-specific phantom (UC-551M-0.5, ATS Laboratories, USA) covered by different candidate materials. The validity of feasible candidate materials was evaluated by image quality. Three independent radiological technologists, with more than 10 years of experience, visually assessed on the images. The inter-observer agreements according to the candidate materials were tested using Cronbach's alpha. Unenveloped solidified carrageenan can be a feasible material for the use of ABUS with excellent test reliability. Therefore, the coverage of the axillary region with carrageenan may be effective for ABUS which was originally developed for the convex anatomic structure as female breast.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1057-1065
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• 2023

Non-invasive liver fibrosis diagnosis is crucial for patients with chronic liver diseases. Many patients cannot undergo liver tissue biopsy, so predicting the degree of liver fibrosis early through meaningful methods can reduce complications related to chronic liver diseases, such as liver cell carcinoma and cirrhosis. This study compared and analyzed the quantitative measurement of liver fibrosis using shear wave elastography in conjunction with liver ultrasound findings and their associations with serum biomarkers (p<0.05). The results showed that the shear wave elastography measurement in the normal group was 4.55 ± 0.69 kPa, while the abnormal contrast group with echogenic patterns had a measurement of 8.27 ± 1.83 kPa. The hepatitis B carrier group exhibited higher shear wave elastography measurements, and among serum biomarkers, AST, ALT, GGT, and PT showed statistically significant positive correlations with fibrosis severity according to SWE categories (p<0.05), while ALP and TB did not demonstrate statistically significant differences (p=0.163, p=0.567). Conversely, Albumin and PLT showed significant negative correlations (p<0.05). Clinically, utilizing shear wave elastography measurements through liver ultrasound in the tracking and repeat testing of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B patients without cirrhosis can assist in achieving more objective diagnoses among healthcare providers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.258-263
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• 1999

In this study, the numerical and experimental investigations were conducted to understand ultrasonic wave propagation and to evaluate the degree of fiber waviness in thick composites nondestructively. The path, energy and traveling time of insonified wave were predicted by adopting the ray and plane wave theories. In the analysis, the composites were assumed to have continuous fiber with sinusoidal waviness in a matrix and were modeled as stacks of infinitesimally short length off-axis elements with varying fiber orientation along the length direction. From the experiments on the specially fabricated thick composite specimens with various degrees of uniform fiber waviness, the energy distributions of received wave were obtain for the various positions of transmitter. It was observed that the energy of wave was converged to the adjacent peaks of fiber waviness. The location where maximum energy of wave was detected from the experiments showed good agreement with the location obtained from theoretical predictions. Finally, the test procedure was Proposed to evaluate fiber waviness in thick composites by considering the energy of wave and relative distance between transmitter and receiver.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.63-71
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• 2021

Using fossil fuels in existing industrial systems causes a variety of social problems. Recently, many studies have been conducted on bio-refineries, which aim to actively utilize biomass to reduce the use of fossil fuels and solve various social problems. Among them, research using microalgae as a third-generation biomass has attracted considerable attention. Microalgae use inorganic matter to produce organic matter, and cell destruction is necessary to extract useful organic materials from microalgae. The extracted organic materials are currently used in various industrial fields. Numerous cell-destruction methods exist. We have investigated cell disruption by sonication, especially its efficiency. Ultrasound is a sound wave with frequencies above 20 kHz, and destroys cells by sending high energy through a cavitation that occurs, according to the characteristics of the sound wave. The Dunaliella salina microalgae used in this study was cultured in a flat-type photobioreactor. Experiments were performed using a batch low-frequency processing device. Logistic model was applied to analyze the results of cell-destruction experiments using ultrasound. The proper conditions for the most efficient cell destruction were OD 1.4(microalgae concentration)), 54watt(output power) and 200mL(microalgae capacity).

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.104-107
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• 2021

The orientation of trabeculae and porosity determine the wave propagation in cancellous bone. Wave propagation, as well as charge density and piezoelectricity, stimulate bone remodeling. Also, Charged ions in the fluid affect wave propagation in cancellous bone. But the trabecular struts' piezoelectricity does not change the waveform of cancellous bone. However, the underlying mechanism is unknown yet why trabecula struts' piezoelectricity does not change wave propagation through cancellous bone. Thus, we derived the governing equation indicating that trabecular struts' piezoelectric properties show that those do not affect wave propagation in cancellous bone.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 1981

In this study, the scattering of ultrasound by blood is theoretically studied. At first, the Chernow equation which represents acoustic propagation inside the region of inhomogenieties is modified to be fitted for blood. Then, scattering amplitude and scattering Cross-section at the far-field region are obtained from this equation. In this case, hemotocrit is assumed to be less than 26 per cent, and the red blood cell is modeled as independent scatterer. This study also develops a practical approximation for the backscattering of periodic sinewave bursts by a volume of randomly distributed scatterers, i.e., whole red blood cells. This expression for the received backscattering ultrasound pressure after the n-th burst of narrowband transducer is obtained from an ideal continuous wave transducer's response.