• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.357-372
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• 2007

Parametric density concept is proposed for a long-range pipeline health monitoring. This concept is designed to obtain the attenuation of ultrasonic guided waves propagating in underwater pipelines without complicated calculation of attenuation dispersion curves. For the study, three different pipe materials such as aluminum, cast iron, and steel are considered, ten different transporting fluids are assumed, and four different geometric pipe dimensions are adopted. It is shown that the attenuation values based on the parametric density concept reasonably match with the attenuation values obtained from dispersion curves; hence, its efficiency is proved. With this concept, field engineers or inspectors associated with long-range pipeline health monitoring would take the advantage of easier capturing wave attenuation value, which is a critical variable to decide sensor location or sensors interval.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.307-309
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• 2006

For efficient NDE of pipes, essential components of power plant facilities, ultrasonic guided waves were generated and received applying an air-coupled transducer and comb one as non-contact technology, Mode generation and selection were predicted based on theoretical dispersive curve and the element spaceof a comb transducer. In addition, a receiving angle of the air-coupled transducer was determined to acquire the predicted modes by theoretical phase velocity of each mode. Theoretical dispersive curve was compared with the results of the time-frequency spectroscopes based on the wavelet transform and 2D-FFT to identify the characteristics of the received mode. The received modes show a good agreement with the predicted ones.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2003

Since the scale in pipes reduces the flow rate, a quantitative evaluation of the scale is essential for the proper maintenance of pipes. Guided waves were employed to estimate the amount of scale in water supplying pipes. Using variable angle wedge, several modes of guided waves wire generated and their propagation charcteristics along the pipes with stale were analyzed. It was experimentally observed that the amplitude of F(M,2) modes at $f{\times}d=1.5MHz\;mm$ decreased significantly with increasing amount of scale. The present study showed that F(M,2) modes were optima) to evaluate the scale in water supplying pipes.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2009

Rock bolts and shotcrete play a crucial role as a main support system in the underground space. Thus, the safety of the underground space may be affected by the defect of rock bolts. In order to evaluate the rock bolt integrity by using non-destructive technique, the transmission method of the guided ultrasonic waves, which are generated by using the piezo disk elements has been successfully performed. The energy generated by the piezo disk elements, however, is not enough for the rock bolts in the field. In addition, the piezo disk elements should be installed at the end of the steel bar during construction of the rock bolts. The purpose of this study is the devolvement of the reflection method, which may generate enough energy, and the application in the field rock bolts. Both laboratory and field tests are carried out. The guided ultrasonic waves with high energy are generated by the hammer impact with the center punch, and the AE sensor is used to measure the reflected guided waves. The received guided waves are analyzed by the wavelet transform. The peak value of the wavelet transform produces the energy velocity, which is used for the evaluation of the rock bolt integrity. The energy velocity increases with an increase in the defect ratio in both laboratory and field rock bolts. This study demonstrates that the hammer-impact reflection method may be a suitable method for the evaluation of the rock bolt in the field.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.367-373
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• 2011

Guided waves inspection techniques that are different with inspection technique by bulk waves are widely used in pipe line evaluation due to advantages of long distance inspection. However, most of pipe lines at industrial fields are buried and/or coated. In this case, due to the attenuation effect from soil and/or coating material, there are a lot of difficulty on inspection by conventional ultrasonic technique. In this paper, guided waves propagating patterns are calculated with respect to excitation mode by Normal Mode Expansion(NME). Guided waves patterns based on excited by single transducer and guided wave focusing technique have employed to analyze focusing pattern on a pipe. A longitudinal mode and high order flexural modes are used with various number of transducers to determine sensitivity. Guided waves energy excited by multi transducer with focusing algorithm was successfully focused at a desired point.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.890-898
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• 2018

Nondestructive inspection (NDI) is an integral part of structural integrity analyses of dry storage casks that house spent nuclear fuel. One significant concern for the structural integrity is stress corrosion cracking in the heat-affected zone of welds in the stainless steel canister that confines the spent fuel. In situ NDI methodology for detection of stress corrosion cracking is investigated, where the inspection uses a delivery robot because of the presence of the harsh environment and geometric constrains inside the cask protecting the canister. Shear horizontal (SH) guided waves that are sensitive to cracks oriented either perpendicular or parallel to the wave vector are used to locate welds and to detect cracks. SH waves are excited and received by electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) using noncontact ultrasonic transduction and pulse-echo mode. A laboratory-scale canister mock-up is fabricated and inspected using the proposed methodology to evaluate the ability of EMATs to excite and receive SH waves and to locate welds. The EMAT's capability to detect notches from various distances is evaluated on a plate containing 25%-through-thickness surface-breaking notches. Based on the results of the distances at which notch reflections are detectable, NDI coverage for spent nuclear fuel storage canisters is determined.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.50-57
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• 2016

Pipeline is one of the most abundant components in petrochemical plant. It plays a critical role in transporting fluids. Some pipelines are thermally insulated by wrapping them with insulating materials to prevent the loss of energy. However, when corrosion begins under insulation, it cannot be easily seen without unwrapping the cover, and thus corrossion should be detected using a non-destructive ways such as ultrasound guided wave. In this paper, the piping where the CUI (Corrosion Under Insulation) which occurs in the insulation parts guided waves effectively the optimum condition which is theoretical for selected guided waves phase velocity dispersion curve and wave-structure. The results of this study are expected to be directly utilized for onsite inspection of pipeline's CUI in many petrochemical plants.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2003

The guided wave has been widely employed to characterize thin plates and layered media. The dispersion curves of phase and group velocities are essential for the quantitative application of guided waves. In the present work, a fully automated system for the measurement of backward radiation of LLW has been developed. The specimen moves in two dimensional plane as well as in angular rotation. The signals of backward radiation of LLW were measured from an elastic plate in which specific modes of Lamb wave were strongly generated. Phase velocity of the corresponding modes was determined from the incident angle. The generated Lamb waves propagated forward and backward with the leakage of energy into water. Backward radiated LLW was detected by the same transducer and its frequency components were analyzed to extract the related information to the dispersion curves. The dispersion curves of phase velocity were measured by varying the incident angle. Moving the specimen in the linear direction of LLW propagation, group velocity was determined by measuring the transit time shift in the ultrasonic waveform.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.398-405
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• 2001

The rivet joint has typical structural feature that can be initiation site for the fatigue crack due to the combination of local stress concentration around rivet hole and the moisture trapping. From a viewpoint of structural assurance, it is crucial to evaluate the size of crack around the rivet holes by appropriate nondestructive evaluation techniques. Lamb wave that is one of guided waves, offers a more efficient tool for nondestructive inspection of plates. The neural network that is considered to be the most suitable for pattern recognition has been used by researchers in NDE field to classify different types of flaws and flaw sizes. In this study, clack size evaluation around the rivet hole using the neural network based on the back-propagation algorithm has been tarried out by extracting some features from the ultrasonic Lamb wave for A12024-T3 skin panel of aircraft. Special attention was paid to reduce the coupling effect between the transducer and the specimen by extracting some features related to time md frequency component data in ultrasonic waveform. It was demonstrated clearly that features extracted from the time and frequency domain data of Lamb wave signal were very useful to determine crack size initiated from rivet hole through neural network.