• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 2018

Purpose: The effect of global inhomogeneity on quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) was investigated. A technique referred to as Simultaneous Unwrapping Phase with Error Recovery from inhomogeneity (SUPER) is suggested as a preprocessing to QSM to remove global field inhomogeneity-induced phase by polynomial fitting. Materials and Methods: The effect of global inhomogeneity on QSM was investigated by numerical simulations. Three types of global inhomogeneity were added to the tissue susceptibility phase, and the root mean square error (RMSE) in the susceptibility map was evaluated. In-vivo QSM imaging with volunteers was carried out for 3.0T and 7.0T MRI systems to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method. Results: The SUPER technique removed harmonic and non-harmonic global phases. Previously only the harmonic phase was removed by the background phase removal method. The global phase contained a non-harmonic phase due to various experimental and physiological causes, which degraded a susceptibility map. The RMSE in the susceptibility map increased under the influence of global inhomogeneity; while the error was consistent, irrespective of the global inhomogeneity, if the inhomogeneity was corrected by the SUPER technique. In-vivo QSM imaging with volunteers at 3.0T and 7.0T MRI systems showed better definition in small vascular structures and reduced fluctuation and non-uniformity in the frontal lobes, where field inhomogeneity was more severe. Conclusion: Correcting global inhomogeneity using the SUPER technique is an effective way to obtain an accurate susceptibility map on QSM method. Since the susceptibility variations are small quantities in the brain tissue, correction of the inhomogeneity is an essential element for obtaining an accurate QSM.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.709-719
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• 2001

In particle or short-fiber reinforced composites, cracking of reinforcements is a significant damage mode because the cracked reinforcements lose carrying capacity. This paper deals with elastic stress distributions and load carrying capacity of intact and cracked ellipsoidal inhomogeneities. Three dimensional finite element analysis has been carried out on intact and cracked ellipsoidal inhomogeneities in an infinite body under uniaxial tension and pure shear. For the intact inhomogeneity, as well known as Eshelbys solution, the stress distribution is uniform in the inhomogeneity and nonuniform in the surrounding matrix. On the other hand, for the cracked inhomogeneity, the stress in the region near the crack surface is considerably released and the stress distribution becomes more complex. The average stress in the inhomogeneity represents its load carrying capacity, and the difference between the average stresses of the intact and cracked inhomogeneities indicates the loss of load carrying capacity due to cracking damage. The load carrying capacity of the cracked inhomogeneity is expressed in to cracking damage. The load carrying capacity of the cracked inhomogeneity is expressed in terms of the average stress of the intact inhomogeneity and some coefficients. It is found that a cracked inhomogeneity with high aspect ratio still maintains higher load carrying capacity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.87-90
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• 2001

In particle or short-fiber reinforced composites, cracking of the reinforcements is a significant damage mode because the broken reinforcements lose load carrying capacity. This paper deals with elastic stress distributions and load carrying capacity of intact and cracked ellipsoidal inhomogeneities. Three dimensional finite element analysis has been carried out on intact and broken ellipsoidal inhomogeneities in an infinite body under pure shear. For the intact inhomogeneity, as well known as Eshelby(1957) solution, the stress distribution is uniform in the inhomogeneity and non-uniform in the surrounding matrix. On the other hand, for the broken inhomogeneity, the stress in the region near crack surface is considerably released and the stress distribution becomes more complex. The average stress in the inhomogeneity represents its load carrying capacity, and the difference of average stresses between the intact and broken inhomogeneities indicates the loss of load carrying capacity due to cracking damage. The load carrying capacity of the broken inhomogeneity is expressed in terms of the average stress of the intact inhomogeneity and some coefficients. It is found that the broken inhomogeneity with higher aspect ratio still maintains higher load carrying capacity.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2011

Purpose : A new inhomogeneity correction method based on two-point Dixon sequence is proposed to obtain water and fat images at 0.35T, low field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. Materials and Methods : Joint phase-magnitude density function (JPMF) is obtained from the in-phase and out-of-phase images by the two-point Dixon method. The range of the water signal is adjusted from the JPMF, and 3D inhomogeneity map is obtained from the phase of corresponding water volume. The 3D inhomogeneity map is used to correct the inhomogeneity field iteratively. Results : The proposed water-fat imaging method was successfully applied to various organs. The proposed 3D inhomogeneity correction algorithm provides good performances in overall multi-slice images. Conclusion : The proposed water-fat separation method using JPMF is robust to field inhomogeneity. Three dimensional inhomogeneity map and the iterative inhomogeneity correction algorithm improve water and fat imaging substantially.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2017

The standard master curve (MC) approach has the major limitation because it is only applicable to homogeneous datasets. In nature, materials are macroscopically inhomogeneous and involve scatter of fracture toughness data due to various deterministic material inhomogeneity and random inhomogeneity. RPV(reactor pressure vessel) steel has different fracture toughness with varying distance from the inner surface of the wall due to cooling rate in manufacturing process; deterministic inhomogeneity. On the other hand, reference temperature, $T_0$, used in the evaluation of fracture toughness is acting as a random parameter in the evaluation of welding region; random inhomogeneity. In the present paper, four regions, the surface, 1/8T, 1/4T and 1/2T, were considered for fracture toughness specimens of KSNP (Korean Standard Nuclear Plant) SA508 Gr. 3 steel to investigate deterministic material inhomogeneity and random inhomogeneity. Fracture toughness tests were carried out for four regions and three test temperatures in the transition region. Fracture toughness evaluation was performed using the bimodal master curve (BMC) approach which is applicable to the inhomogeneous material. The results of the bimodal master curve analyses were compared with that of conventional master curve analyses. As a result, the bimodal master approach considering inhomogeneous materials provides better description of scatter in fracture toughness data than conventional master curve analysis. However, the difference in the $T_0$ determined by two master curve approaches was insignificant.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2006

The effect of small-scale near surface inhomogeneity on Rayleigh wave propagation and dispersion has been investigated in this study using two-dimensional FEM elastic modeling. Various inhomogeneity models with a variety of geometrical shape and embedment depth which exist in homogeneous half-space and two-layered media are considered. Results show that any near surface inhomogeneity greater than one wavelength in terms of minimum wavelength of Rayleigh wave shows dispersion characteristics. Such dispersion effect become stronger as the dimensions of the inhomogeneity increase. The effect of horizontal dimension is more dominant factor governing the dispersion characteristics than vertical dimension. However, the dispersion effect can not be identifiable in seismogram if the horizontal dimension is not wide enough. Nonetheless, even in this case, the existence of inhomogeneity can be inferred by the reflection or transmission event of Rayleigh wave. The results can be expected to provide insights on the behavior of Rayleigh wave which may be helpful for designating field work or new processing scheme to detect near surface inhomogeneity by surface wave method.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.977-985
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• 2012

Data quality and climate forecasting performance deteriorates because of long climate data contaminated by non-climatic factors such as the station relocation or new instrument replacement. For a trusted climate forecast, it is necessary to implement data quality control and test inhomogeneous data. Before the inhomogeneity test, a reference series was created by $d$ index to measure the temperature series relationship between the candidate and surrounding stations. In this study, a inhomogeneity test to each season and climatological station was performed on the daily mean temperatures, daily minimum temperatures and daily maximum temperatures. After comparing two inhomogeneity tests, the traditional and the adjusted SNHT method, we found the adjusted SNHT method was slightly superior to the traditional one.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.81-86
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• 2023

Asphalt pavements are generally composed of fine and coarse aggregates, bitumen, and modifier. Asphalt pavement wear particles (APWPs) are produced by friction between the road surface and the tire tread, and they flow into the environment such as rivers and oceans. Model APWPs were prepared and a single APWP of 212-500 (S-APWP) and 500-1000 ㎛ (L-APWP) was analyzed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to investigate inhomogeneity in the compositions of the APWPs. The reference TGA thermogram was built using thermograms of the raw materials and formulation of the model asphalt pavement. The compositions of the APWPs were different from each other. Ash contents of the APWPs were lower than expected. Inhomogeneity in the total contents of bitumen and modifier was more severe than that in the other components. The inhomogeneity of the S-APWPs was more severe than that of the L-APWPs.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2007

Purpose: To acquire high-resolution spiral-scan images at higher magnetic field, high homogeneous magnetic field is needed. Field inhomogeneity mapping and in-vivo shimming are important for rapid imaging such as spiral-scan imaging. The rapid scanning sequences are very susceptible to inhomogeneity. In this paper, we proposed a higher-order shimming method to obtain homogeneous magnetic field. Materials and Methods: To reduce measurement time for field inhomogeneity mapping, simultaneous axial/ sagittal, and coronal acquisitions are done using multi-slice based Fast Spin echo sequence. Acquired field inhomogeneity map is analyzed using the spherical harmonic functions, and shim currents are obtained by the multiplication of the pseudo-inverse of the field pattern with the inhomogeneity map. Results: Since the field inhomogeneity is increasing in proportion to the magnetic field, higher order shimming to reduce the inhomogeneity becomes more important in high field imaging. The shimming technique in which axial, sagittal, and coronal section inhomogeneity maps are obtained in one scan is developed, and the shimming method based on the analysis of spherical harmonics of the imhomogenity map is applied. The proposed technique is applicable to a localized shimming as well. High resolution spiral-scan imaging was successfully obtained with the proposed higher order shimming. Conclusion: Proposed pulse sequence for rapid measurement of inhomogeneity map and higher order shimming based on the inhomogeneity map work very well at 3 Tesla MRI system. With the proposed higher order shimming and localized higher order shimming techniques, high resolution spiral-scan images are successfully obtained at 3 T MRI system.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1760-1778
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• 2018

For image segmentation with intensity inhomogeneity, many region-based level set methods have been proposed. Some of them however can't get the relatively ideal segmentation results under the severe intensity inhomogeneity and weak edges, and without use of the image gradient information. To improve that, we propose a new level set method combined with local direction gradient in this paper. Firstly, based on two assumptions on intensity inhomogeneity to images, the relationships between segmentation objects and image gradients to local minimum and maximum around a pixel are presented, from which a new pixel classification method based on weight of Euclidian distance is introduced. Secondly, to implement the model, variational level set method combined with image spatial neighborhood information is used, which enhances the anti-noise capacity of the proposed gradient information based model. Thirdly, a new diffusion process with an edge indicator function is incorporated into the level set function to classify the pixels in homogeneous regions of the same segmentation object, and also to make the proposed method more insensitive to initial contours and stable numerical implementation. To verify our proposed method, different testing images including synthetic images, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and real-world images are introduced. The image segmentation results demonstrate that our method can deal with the relatively severe intensity inhomogeneity and obtain the comparatively ideal segmentation results efficiently.