• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.427-436
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• 2017

Concrete technologists have used ultrasonic pulse velocity test for decades to evaluate the properties of concrete. However, the presented research work focuses on the use of ultrasonic pulse velocity test to study the degradation in steel-concrete bond subjected to increasing loading. A detailed experimental investigation was conducted by testing five identical beam specimens under increasing loading. The loading was increased from zero till failure in equal increments. From the experimentation, it was found that as the reinforced concrete beams were stressed from control unloaded condition till complete failure, the propagating ultrasonic wave velocity reduced. This reduction in wave velocity is attributed to the initiation, development, and propagation of internal cracking in the concrete surrounding the steel reinforcement. Using both direct and semidirect methods of testing, results of reduction in wave velocity with evidence of internal cracking at steel-concrete interface are presented. From the presented results and discussion, it can be concluded that the UPV test method can be successfully employed to identify zones of poor bonding along the length of reinforced concrete beam. The information gathered by such testing can be used by engineers for localizing repairs thereby leading to saving of time, labor and cost of repairs. Furthermore, the implementation strategy along with real-world challenges associated with the application of the proposed technique and area of future development have also been presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 2000

Modeling of radiation beam from ultrasonic transducers has been investigated extensively, since it is one of the most important, fundamental issues that have great influence on the accuracy of an ultrasonic measurement model. Here, three popular radiation models, namely the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld integral model, the boundary diffraction wave model and the edge element model, are discussed briefly, and the radiation beam fields from ultrasonic transducers with planar, circular and rectangular cross-sections are calculated using these three models. Then, the accuracy and the time-efficiency of these methods are compared based on the calculation results.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.74-81
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• 2004

The ultrasonic non-destructive method was used for wood decay test. The temperature change and moisture contents of wood were estimated how the ultrasonic wave velocity changes. The relationship between weight loss of wood decayed by T. palustris and ultrasonic wave velocity was investigated. The non-destructive methods of different condition of logwood were estimated. Decay map of old wood was made by non destructive methods. Through these tests, we can accumulate the data to judge the degree of wood decay. The decay map of wood could be used for the analysis of old wood.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.378-385
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• 1995

The ultrasonic non-destructive testing uses the directivity of the ultrasonic pulse wave which propagates in one direction. The directivity is expressed as the relationship between the propagate direction and its sound pressure. The directivity of ultrasonic wave is closely related to determination of probe arrangement, testing sensitivity, scanning pitch and defect location and characterization. The paper measured the directivity of shear wave, which reflected from artificial defect located in weld metal zone in butt welded joint similar model made of pyrex glass by using visualization method. 2 MHz and 4 MHz angle probes were used to measure the directivity of reflection wave at the artificial defect. The directivity of shear waves reflected from the defect was different according to the probe position and the shape of butt welded joint. The difference of directivity of reflection wave was existed between 2 MHz and 4 MHz angle probes. The angle of reflection wave became equal to angle of incidence as increase of the height of excess metal.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

An experimental study has been conducted to scrutinize into the influence of ultrasonic standing wave field on the variation of methane/air premixed flame structure. Visualization technique utilizing the Schlieren method is employed for the observation of premixed flame propagation. The shape of flame front and local flame velocity are measured according to the variation of reactants pressure and chamber opening/closing condition. The flame fronts affected by the standing wave are clearly distorted but the vertical locations of frontal dents do not undergo any appreciable change. The influence of standing wave on the flame front becomes more prominent as the flame propagates downward. It is found that the propagation velocity of flame front with excitation of standing wave is greater than the case without the excitation. It is eventually revealed that the flame is deformed to lotus-shaped one by the vivid interaction of ultrasonic standing-wave with the reflected wave coming from the right side.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.130-137
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• 2000

Ultrasonic technique which is one of the most common and reliable nondestructive evaluation techniques has been applied to evaluate the integrity of structures by analyzing the characteristics of signal scattered from internal defects. Therefore, the numerical analysis of the ultrasonic scattered field is absolutely necessary for the accurate and quantitative estimation of internal defects. Various modeling techniques now play an important role in nondestructive evaluation and have been employed to solve elastic wave scattering problems. Because the elastodynamic boundary element method is useful to analyze the scattered field in infinite media. it has been used to calculate the ultrasonic wavefields scattered from internal defects. In this study, a review of the boundary element method used for elastic wave scattering problems is presented and, as examples of the boundary element method, the scattered fields due to a circular cavity subjected to incident SH-wave and due to a surface-breaking crack subjected to incident Rayleigh wave are illustrated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.481-493
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• 2018

Ultrasonic guided waves have attracted increasing attention for non-destructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridge cables. They offer advantages like single measurement, wide coverage of acoustical field, and long-range propagation capability. To design defect detection systems, it is essential to understand how guided waves propagate in cables and how to select the optimal excitation frequency and mode. However, certain cable characteristics such as multiple wires, anchorage, and polyethylene (PE) sheath increase the complexity in analyzing the guided wave propagation. In this study, guided wave modes for multi-wire bridge cables are identified by using a semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) technique to obtain relevant dispersion curves. Numerical results indicated that the number of guided wave modes increases, the length of the flat region with a low frequency of L(0,1) mode becomes shorter, and the cutoff frequency for high order longitudinal wave modes becomes lower, as the number of steel wires in a cable increases. These findings were used in design of transducers for defect detection and selection of the optimal wave mode and frequency for subsequent experiments. A magnetostrictive transducer system was used to excite and detect the guided waves. The applicability of the proposed approach for detecting and locating wire breakages was demonstrated for a cable with 37 wires. The present ultrasonic guided wave method has been found to be very responsive to the number of brokenwires and is thus capable of detecting defects with varying sizes.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.217-223
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• 2003

A novel cooling method induced by acoustic streaming generated by ultrasonic vibration at 30㎑ is presented. Ultrasonic vibration is obtained by piezoelectric devices and the maximum vibration amplitude of 50 m is achieved by including a horn, mechanical vibration amplifier in the system and making the complete system resonate. To investigate the enhancement of heat transfer capability of acoustic streaming, the temperature variations of heat source and air in the vicinity of heat source are measured in real-time. It is observed that acoustic streaming is instantly induced by ultrasonic vibration, resulting in the significant temperature drop due to the bulk air flow caused by acoustic streaming. In addition, it is observed that the cooling effect on the heat source is maximized when the gap between the ultrasonic vibrator and heat source coincides with the multiples of half-wavelength of the ultrasonic wave. This fact results from the resonance of the sound wave. The theoretical analysis of the dependence on the gap is also accomplished and verified by experiment. The advantage of the proposed cooling method by acoustic streaming is noise-free due to the ultrasonic vibration and maintenance-free because of the absence of moving parts. Moreover. This cooling method can be utilized to the nano and micro-electro mechanical systems, where the fan-based conventional cooling method can not be employed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.161-168
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• 2015

An experimental study was conducted to scrutinize the influence of the frequency of an ultrasonic standing wave on the variation in the behavior of a methane-air premixed flame. The evolutionary features of the propagating flame were captured by a high-speed camera, and the macroscopic flame behavior, including the flame structure and local velocities, was investigated in detail using a post-processing analysis of the high-speed images. It was found that a structural variation and propagation-velocity augmentation of the methane-air premixed flame were caused by the intervention of the ultrasonic standing wave, which enhanced the combustion reaction. Conclusive evidence for the dependency of the flame behaviors on the driving frequency of the ultrasonic standing wave and equivalence ratio of the reactants is presented.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.183-189
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• 2010

A localization system for indoor robots is an important technology for robot navigation in a building. Our localization system imports the GPS system and consists of more than 3 satellite beacons and a receiver. Each beacon emits both an ultrasonic wave and radio frequency. The receiver in the robot computes the distance from it to the beacon by measuring the flying time difference between ultrasonic wave and radio frequency. It then computes its position with the distance information from more than 3 beacons whose positions are known. However, the distance information includes errors caused from the ultrasonic sensors; we found it to be limited to within one period of a wave (${\pm}2\;cm$ tolerance). This paper presents a method for predicting the maximum position error due to distance information errors by using Taylor expansion and singular value decomposition (SVD). The paper also proposes a measuring parameter such as sensitivity to represent the accuracy of the indoor robot localization system in determining the robot's position with regards to the distance error.