• Computers and Concrete
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.271-283
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• 2010

Testing of ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) is one of the most popular and actual non-destructive techniques used in the estimation of the concrete properties in structures. In this paper, artificial neural network (ANN) approach has been proposed for the evaluation of relationship between concrete compressive strength, UPV, and density values by using the experimental data obtained from many cores taken from different reinforced concrete structures with different ages and unknown ratios of concrete mixtures. The presented approach enables to find practically concrete strengths in the reinforced concrete structures, whose records of concrete mixture ratios are not yet available. Thus, researchers can easily evaluate the compressive strength of concrete specimens by using UPV values. The method can be used in conditions including too many numbers of the structures and examinations to be done in restricted time duration. This method also contributes to a remarkable reduction of the computational time without any significant loss of accuracy. Statistic measures are used to evaluate the performance of the models. The comparison of the results clearly shows that the ANN approach can be used effectively to predict the compressive strength of concrete by using UPV and density data. In addition, the model architecture can be used as a non-destructive procedure for health monitoring of structural elements.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.321-326
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• 2010

A method that can decide the existence and the severeness of flaws in ceramic materials through the use of non-destructive testing by image processing techniques, is proposed in this paper. The edges of the acquired image are first extracted using Sobel mask and the regions of the image are clustered using another mask after that. Histogram stretching is applied to each of the regions to enhance the image region-wise and objects are extracted by an edge following algorithm. Morphological information is incorporated to remove noise and detect flawed regions. The proposed method can detect flaws in the acquired images and the experimental results also supports that.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1753-1761
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• 2014

Due to the inherent inhomogeneous and anisotropy nature of the composite materials, the detection of internal defects in these materials with non-destructive techniques is an important requirement both for quality checks during the production phase and in service inspection during maintenance operations. The estimation of the time-of-arrival (TOA) and/or time-of-flight (TOF) of the ultrasonic echoes is essential in ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT). In this paper, we used split-spectrum processing (SSP) combined with matching pursuit signal decomposition (MPSD) to develop a dedicated ultrasonic detection system. SSP algorithm is used for Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) enhancement, and the MPSD algorithm is used to decompose backscattered signals into a linear expansion of chirplet echoes and estimate the chirplet parameters. Therefore, the combination of SSP and MPSD (SSP-MPSD) presents a powerful technique for ultrasonic NDT. The SSP algorithm is achieved by using Gaussian band pass filters. Then, MPSD algorithm uses the Maximum Likelihood Estimation. The good performance of the proposed method is experimentally verified using ultrasonic traces acquired from three specimens of carbon fibre reinforced polymer multi-layered composite materials (CFRP).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1626-1633
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• 2021

In an industrial field, non-destructive testing (NDT) is commonly used to inspect industrial products. Among NDT methods using radiation sources, X-ray laminography has several advantages, such as high depth resolution and low computational costs. Moreover, an X-ray laminography system with stationary source array and compact detector is able to reduce mechanical motion artifacts and improve inspection efficiency. However, this system, called stationary inverse-geometry X-ray laminography (s-IGXL), causes truncation artifacts in reconstructed images due to limited fields-of-view (FOVs). In this study, we proposed a projection data correction (PDC) method to reduce the truncation artifacts arisen in s-IGXL images, and the performance of the proposed method was evaluated with the different number of focal spots in terms of quantitative accuracy. Comparing with conventional techniques, the PDC method showed superior performance in reducing truncation artifacts and improved the quantitative accuracy of s-IGXL images for all the number of focal spots. In conclusion, the PDC method can improve the accuracy of s-IGXL images and allow precise NDT measurements.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.327-335
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• 2021

Microcracks can rapidly grow and develop in high-strength steels used in offshore structures. It is important to render these microcracks harmless to ensure the safety and reliability of offshore structures. Here, the dependence of the aspect ratio (As) of the maximum depth of harmless crack (a_hlm) was evaluated under three different conditions considering the threshold stress intensity factor (Δk_th) and residual stress of offshore structural steel F690. The threshold stress intensity factor and fatigue limit of fatigue crack propagation, dependent on crack dimensions, were evaluated using Ando's equation, which considers the plastic behavior of fatigue and the stress ratio. a_hlm by peening was analyzed using the relationship between Δk_th obtained by Ando's equation and Δk_th obtained by the sum of applied stress and residual stress. The plate specimen had a width 2W = 12 mm and thickness t = 20 mm, and four value of As were considered: 1.0, 0.6, 0.3, and 0.1. The a_hlm was larger as the compressive residual stress distribution increased. Additionally, an increase in the values of As and Δk_th(l) led to a larger a_hlm. With a safety factor (N) of 2.0, the long-term safety and reliability of structures constructed using F690 can be secured with needle peening. It is necessary to apply a more sensitive non-destructive inspection technique as a non-destructive inspection method for crack detection could not be used to observe fatigue cracks that reduced the fatigue limit of smooth specimens by 50% in the three types of residual stresses considered. The usefulness of non-destructive inspection and non-damaging techniques was reviewed based on the relationship between a_hlm, a_NDI (minimum crack depth detectable in non-destructive inspection), a_{cr N} (crack depth that reduces the fatigue limit to 1/N), and As.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.394-408
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• 2015

Spectroscopy is an emerging technology for the quality assessment of pharmaceutical samples, from tablet manufacturing to final quality assurance. The traditional methods for the quality management of pharmaceutical tablets are time consuming and destructive, while spectroscopic techniques allow rapid analysis in a non-destructive manner. The advantage of spectroscopy is that it collects both spatial and spectral information (called hyperspectral imaging), which is useful for the chemical imaging of pharmaceutical samples. These chemical images provide both qualitative and quantitative information on tablet samples. In the pharmaceutics, spectroscopic techniques are used for a variety of applications, such as analysis of the homogeneity of powder samples as well as determination of particle size, product composition, and the concentration, uniformity, and distribution of the active pharmaceutical ingredient in solid tablets. This review paper presents an introduction to the applications of various spectroscopic techniques such as hyperspectroscopy and vibrational spectroscopies (Raman spectroscopy, FT-NIR, and IR spectroscopy) for the quality and safety assessment of pharmaceutical solid dosage forms. In addition, various chemometric techniques that are highly essential for analyzing the spectroscopic data of pharmaceutical samples are also reviewed.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2010

The damage from the underground termite cannot be discovered with peculiar appearance of building but hollow phenomenon will occur. But there is no case in Korea as a non-destructive measurement of termite activation. Therefore, this research constructs non-destructive diagnostic techniques for wooden cultural properties using microwave detector (Termatrac, Australia). Result of maximun distance were measured 16cm (Pine tree, sensitivity 5, 6), 17cm (Zelkova and Douglas fir, sensitivity 5, 6). These results are expected that can be applied in the field. Result of field test using microwave detector, 33.8% of the wooden cultural properties were damaged by termites, and until now 7.8% (18 buildings) are being damaged in nationwide (total 231 buildings). Based on the above results, microwave detector will be able to be utilized effectively for detecting termite, preventing intrusion in wooden structure, and making full use of monitoring system periodically. In addition, it could be of great worth in preventing insect and microorganism in wooden structure.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.197-209
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• 2010

The structural state of a bridge is currently examined by visual inspection or by wired sensor techniques, which are relatively expensive, vulnerable to inclement conditions, and time consuming to undertake. In contrast, wireless sensor networks are easy to deploy and flexible in application so that the network can adjust to the individual structure. Different sensing techniques have been used with such networks, but the acoustic emission technique has rarely been utilized. With the use of acoustic emission (AE) techniques it is possible to detect internal structural damage, from cracks propagating during the routine use of a structure, e.g. breakage of prestressing wires. To date, AE data analysis techniques are not appropriate for the requirements of a wireless network due to the very exact time synchronization needed between multiple sensors, and power consumption issues. To unleash the power of the acoustic emission technique on large, extended structures, recording and local analysis techniques need better algorithms to handle and reduce the immense amount of data generated. Preliminary results from utilizing a new concept called Acoustic Emission Array Processing to locally reduce data to information are presented. Results show that the azimuthal location of a seismic source can be successfully identified, using an array of six to eight poor-quality AE sensors arranged in a circular array approximately 200 mm in diameter. AE beamforming only requires very fine time synchronization of the sensors within a single array, relative timing between sensors of $1{\mu}s$ can easily be performed by a single Mote servicing the array. The method concentrates the essence of six to eight extended waveforms into a single value to be sent through the wireless network, resulting in power savings by avoiding extended radio transmission.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.5-14
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• 2001

The NDT(Non-Destructive Testing) technique, detecting defects without damaging foundations, has, lately, been a matter of concern. In this study, the applicability of the borehole methods(CSL, CT, PS) and the surface reflection methods(SE, IR) to the evaluation of integrity of drilled shaft was investigated through field test. Ten drilled shafts, 0.4 m in diameter and 7.0 m long each, were constructed, one shaft with no defect and nine shafts intentionally with the combination of the common defects such as soft bottom, necking, bulging, cave-in, and/or weak concrete. Analysing each NDP test result on the constructed drilled shafts, an optimum combination of the NDP methods as well as the applicability of each NDP method to detecting defects of drilled shaft have been investigated.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07b
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• pp.1580-1583
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• 2005

We report simple new techniques to express analysis of display materials. Colour Cathodoluminescence combined with scanning electron microscopy and spectroscopy is a powerful, non-destructive, high-resolution method for investigation luminescent materials. Some applications of this method to powder phosphors used in display are demonstrated.