• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.469-482
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• 2009

The emerging sensor-based structural health monitoring (SHM) technology has a potential for cost-effective maintenance of aging civil infrastructure systems. The author proposes to integrate continuous and global monitoring using on-structure sensors with targeted local non-destructive evaluation (NDE). Significant technical challenges arise, however, from the lack of cost-effective sensors for monitoring spatially large structures, as well as reliable methods for interpreting sensor data into structural health conditions. This paper reviews recent efforts and advances made in addressing these challenges, with example sensor hardware and health monitoring software developed in the author's research center. The hardware includes a novel fiber optic accelerometer, a vision-based displacement sensor, a distributed strain sensor, and a microwave imaging NDE device. The health monitoring software includes a number of system identification methods such as the neural networks, extended Kalman filter, and nonlinear damping identificaiton based on structural dynamic response measurement. These methods have been experimentally validated through seismic shaking table tests of a realistic bridge model and tested in a number of instrumented bridges and buildings.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.1072-1080
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• 2000

Leakage magnetic flux (LMF) is widely used for non-contact detection of cracks. The combination of optics and LMF offers advantages such as real time inspection, elimination of electrical noise, high spatial resolution, etc. This paper describes a new nondestructive evaluation method based on an original magneto-optical inspection system, which uses a magneto-optical sensor, LMF, and an improved magnetization method. The improved magnetization method has the following characteristics: high observation sensitivity, independence of the crack orientation, and precise transcription of the geometry of a complex crack. The use of vertical magnetization enables the visualization of the length and width of a crack. The inspection system provides the images of the crack, and shows a possibility for the computation of its depth.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.32-37
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• 2004

Application of bonding by adhesives can be found in many industries, particularly in advanced technological domains such as aeronautical and space, automobile and electronics industries. Periodic inspection with conventional ultrasonic NDE techniques is capable of indicating the presence and possible location of crack. Continuous ultrasonic attenuation monitoring has potential to supply information. This article discusses the use of pulse-echo ultrasonic testing for the inspection of adhesive bonds between metal sheets. The method is based on the measurement of the reflection coefficient at the metal/adhesive interface. By means of a control experiment it is shown that Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation in Adhesive Joints are evaluated together with Ultrasonic Testing and Fracture Testing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.98-104
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• 2003

Various nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques have been studied to locate steel rebars of dowel, and to detect invisible damage such as voids and cracks inside concrete and debonding between rebars and concrete caused by corrosions and earthquakes. In this study, the aurhors developed 3-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic (EM) imaging technology to detect such damage and to identify exact location of steel rebars of dowel. The authors have developed sub-surface two-dimensional (2D) imaging technique using tomographic antenna array in previous works. In this study, extending the earlier analytical and experimental works on 2D image reconstruction, a 3D microwave imaging system using tomographic antenna array was developed, and multi-frequency technique was applied to improve quality of the reconstructed image and to reduce background noises. This paper presents the analytical expressions of numerical focusing procedures for 3D image reconstruction and numerical simulation to study the resolution of the system and the effectiveness of multi-frequency technique. Also, the design of 4?4 antenna array with switching devices is introduced as a preliminary study for the final design of whole array.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2006

ln order to manage efficiently many ancient wooden buildings, which have been preserved as cultural properties in Korea, the internal state of wood members should be evaluated exactly and periodically by a NDE (non-destructive evaluation) method. A research project was planned to develop an X-ray CT (computed tomography) system as a NDE method for wood, which could be easily applied in field. This paper includes the first part of this project. First of all, to establish a measuring procedure of wood density using X-ray radiography, the correlation between X-ray intensity and the film brightness was evaluated. Also, initial X-ray intensity was quantified with various radiate conditions controlled by the tube voltage and tube current. And then, the effects of density, annual ring angle, and thickness on the mass attenuation coefficient of wood were examined. Finally, Beer's law was modified with the above results and adopted to calculate the density of wood. As a result of this study, the measuring procedure of wood density was established using a portable soft X-ray device and this procedure was verified with some small wood specimens. This results will he used valuably for the following researches to develop a portable X-ray CT system.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.584-589
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• 2007

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is a type of electroactive polymer which shows significant shape change when exposed to electric field. PVDF is generally used as a film sensor in non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of materials. In this study, however, its properties relevant to film actuator are considered. Since most of the electromechanical applications that use PVDF and its copolymers as actuators use their piezoelectric properties, only the piezoelectric properties of PVDF are discussed here. These properties depend mainly on the degree of crystallinity of PVDF. Available data from recent research publications are used to simulate the response of a PVDF bimorph beam on the application of electric field, by a commercial finite element analysis package ANSYS. Finally, the factors that affect mechanical behavior of PVDF bimorph beam are discussed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 1998

Propagation of elastic surface waves in anisotropic media is considered in this study. An analytical technique is proposed to study the scattering of surface waves at the interface between two anisotropic quarter-spaces. The Green's function technique is used to derive a system of equations which can determine the scattering coefficients at the interface. A numerical study is carried out and the trade-offs between the material anisotropy and inhomogeneity are studied.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.429-436
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• 2004

For the in-situ health monitoring of critical members in civil infra-structures, ultrasonic guided Lamb waves-based non-destructive evaluation (NDE) is very suitable. However, a chief drawback of the Lamb wave techniques is that multiple modes exist at all frequencies and the modes are generally dispersive, which means that the received signals may be very complicated. To overcome these complications, selective transmitting and receiving of a single A/sub 0/ mode within a frequency range can be adopted. Furthermore, a wavelet technique can be utilized to decompose the Lamb wave response into wavelet coefficients as a tool for signal processing. The changes in the Lamb waves interacting with damages in the steel plates are successfully characterized by this wavelet technique, through the amplitude change of the wavelet coefficients. In this paper, the feasibility of detecting a line crack on the surface of a steel plate and loosened bolts in a joint steel specimen using the Lamb waves and the wavelet technique is investigated.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.331-342
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• 2005

This paper presents a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique for detecting damages on a jointed steel plate on the basis of the time of flight and wavelet coefficient, obtained from wavelet transforms of Lamb wave signals. Support vector machines (SVMs), which is a tool for pattern classification problems, was applied to the damage estimation. Two kinds of damages were artificially introduced by loosening bolts located in the path of the Lamb waves and those out of the path. The damage cases were used for the establishment of the optimal decision boundaries which divide each damage class's region from the intact class. In this study, the applicability of the SVMs was investigated for the damages in and out of the Lamb wave path. It has been found that the present methods are very efficient in detecting the damages simulated by loose bolts on the jointed steel plate.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.380-387
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• 1998

In this paper, a sensor material with Fe/Zr multilayer thin film, in which the change in the magnetization and strain with hydrogenation is maximized, were developed. Compositionally modulated (CM) Fe/Zr multilayers with a $Fe_{80}Zr_{20}$ composition and modulation wavelengths ($\lambda$) $3~50{\AA}$ were deposited by sequentially sputtering (RF diode) elemental Fe and Zr targets. The films were electrolytically hydrogenated to select the optimum Fe/Zr multilayers that show the maximum increases in the magnetization and strain with hydrogenation. The changes in the magnetic properties of the thin films after hydrogenation, were measured using a hysteresis graph and a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and the strains induced in the films by hydrogenation were also measured using a laser heterodyne interferometer (LHI). The optimum sensor material selected was incorporated in a fiber-optic hydrogen sensor (that can sense indirectly amount of hydrogen injected) by depositing it directly on the sensing arm of a single-mode fiber Michelson interferometer. The developed sensor holds significant promise for non-destructive test evaluation (NDE) applications because it is expected to be useful for detecting easily and accurately the subsurface corrosion in structural systems.