• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.218-223
• /
• 2007

The dissipation of high-power ultrasonic energy at the faces of the defect causes an increase in temperature. It is resulted from localized selective heating in the vicinity of cracks because of the friction effect. In this paper the measurement of size and direction of crack using UET(Ultrasound Excitation Thermography) is described. The ultrasonic pulse energy is injected into the sample in one side. The hot spot, which is a small area around the crack tip and heated up highly, is observed. The hot spot, which is estimated as the starting point of the crack, is seen in the nearest position from the ultrasonic excitation point. Another ultrasonic pulse energy is injected into the sample in the opposite side. The hot spot, the ending point of the crack, is seen in the closest distance from the injection point also. From the calculation of the coordinates of both the first hot spot and the second hot spot observed, the size and slope of the crack is estimated. In the experiment of STS fatigue crack specimen(thickness 14mm), the size and the direction of the crack was measured.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.457-466
• /
• 2014

This paper presents an analytic and numerical simulation of the generation and propagation of pico-second ultrasound with nano-scale wavelength, enabling the production of bulk waves in thin films. An analytic model of laser-matter interaction and elasto-dynamic wave propagation is introduced to calculate the elastic strain pulse in microstructures. The model includes the laser-pulse absorption on the material surface, heat transfer from a photon to the elastic energy of a phonon, and acoustic wave propagation to formulate the governing equations of ultra-short ultrasound. The excitation and propagation of acoustic pulses produced by ultra-short laser pulses are numerically simulated for an aluminum substrate using the finite-difference method and compared with the analytical solution. Furthermore, Fourier analysis was performed to investigate the frequency spectrum of the simulated elastic wave pulse. It is concluded that a pico-second bulk wave with a very high frequency of up to hundreds of gigahertz is successfully generated in metals using a 100-fs laser pulse and that it can be propagated in the direction of thickness for thickness less than 100 nm.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.200-206
• /
• 2010

In ultrasound-excited thermography, the injected ultrasound to an object is transformed to heat and the appearance of defects can be visualized by thermography camera. The advantage of this technology is selectively sensitive to thermally active defects. Despite the apparent simplicity of the scheme, there are a number of experimental considerations that can complicate the implementation of ultrasound excitation thermography inspection. Factors including acoustic horn location, horn-crack proximity, horn-sample coupling, and effective detection range all significantly affect the detect ability of this technology. As conclusions, the influence of coupling pressures between ultrasound exciter and specimen was analyzed, which was dominant factor in frictional heating model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.217-232
• /
• 1999

The ability to see the internal organs of the human body in a noninvasive way is a powerful diagnostic tool of modern medicine. Among these imaging modalities such as X-ray, MRI, and ultrasound. MRI and ultrasound are presenting much less risk of undesirable damage of both patient and examiner. In fact, no deleterious effects have been reported as a result of clinical examination by using MRI and ultrasound diagnostic equipment. As a result. their market volume has been rapidly increased. MRI has a good resolution. but there are a few disadvantages such as high price. non-real-time imaging capability. and expensive diagnostic cost. On the other hand, the ultrasound imaging system has inherently poor resolution as compared with X-ray and MRI. In spite of its poor resolution, the ultrasound diagnostic equipment is lower in price and has an ability of real-time imaging as compared with the others. As a result. the ultrasound imaging system has become general and essential modality for imaging the internal organs of human body. In this review various researches and developments to enhance the resolution of the ultrasound images are explained and future trends of the ultrasound imaging technology are described.

• Laser Solutions
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.1-5
• /
• 2012

We demonstrate that reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coated thin aluminum film is an effective optoacoustic transmitter for generating high pressure and high frequency ultrasound previously unattainable by other techniques. The rGO layer of different thickness is deposited between a 100 nm-thick aluminum film and a glass substrate. Under a pulsed laser excitation, the transmitter generates enhanced optoacoustic pressure of 64 times the aluminum-alone transmitter. A promising optoacoustic wave generation is possible by optimizing thermoelasticity of metal film and thermal conductivity of rGO in the proposed transmitter for laser-induced ultrasound (LIUS) applications.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.215-220
• /
• 2015

As a nondestructive inspection technology currently in use, infrared thermography has gradually expanded its application range to industry. The method detects only defect areas by grafting ultrasound on a technique of detecting infrared energy emitted from all objects with absolute temperature of 0 K and converting this energy into thermography for inspection. Ultrasound infrared thermography has merits including the ability to inspect a wide area in a short time without contacting the target object. This study investigated the applicability of the technique for defect detection using variable ultrasound excitation inspection methods on samples of Terfenol-D, a magnetostrictive material with a tunable natural resonant frequency.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.989-995
• /
• 2013

Unlike fossil-or nuclear fuel-based power generation, wind power generation using inexhaustible wind energy is a pollution-free, hazardless power generation method. In this study, ultrasound thermography is used for fabricating specimens of wind power generator bearings and wind power generator supplement flanges, and an optimally designed ultrasound horn and ultrasound excitation system are used for detecting damage to part materials of a wind power generation setup. In addition, thermal flow analysis and ultrasonic thermography imaging are comparatively analyzed for improving the detection reliability in terms of surface and internal defects of part materials and for verifying the developed system's field applicability and reliability.

• Current Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.59-68
• /
• 2018

Opto-acoustic systems provide structural and functional information regarding biological tissues. Conventional opto-acoustic systems typically employ continuous or pulsed lasers as transmission sources. Compared to lasers, light emitting diodes (LEDs) are cost-effective and relatively portable excitation sources but are non, coherent. Therefore, in this study, a relatively low cost lens - a type of Ramsden eyepiece - was specially designed to theoretically calculate the illumination and achieve a constant brightness across the pupil of an eye. In order to verify the capability of the developed light-emitting diode-acoustic (LEDA) systems, we carried out experiments on bovine and bigeye tuna eyeball samples, which are of similar size to the human eye, using low frequency (10 MHz) and high frequency (25 MHz) ultrasound transducers. High frequency ultrasound transducers are able to provide higher spatial resolution compared to low frequency ultrasound transducers at the expense of penetration depth. Using the 10 MHz and 25 MHz ultrasound transducers, acceptable echo signals (3.82, 3.94, and 5.84 mV at 10 MHz and 282, 1557, 2356 mV at 25 MHz) from depth greater than 3 cm and 6 cm from the anterior surface of the eye were obtained. We thereby confirmed that the LEDA system using a pulsed LED with the designed Ramsden eyepiece lens, used in conjunction with low and high frequency ultrasound transducers, has the potential to be a cost-effective alternative method, while providing adequate acoustic signals from bovine and bigeye tuna ocular areas.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.3
• /
• pp.867-876
• /
• 2019

Second harmonic generation using nonlinear ultrasonic waves have been shown to be an early indicator of possible fatigue damage in nuclear power plant components. This technique relies on measuring amplitudes, making it highly susceptible to variations in transducer coupling and instrumentation. This paper proposes an experimental procedure for in-situ surface wave nonlinear ultrasound measurements on specimen with permanently mounted transducers under high cycle fatigue loading without interrupting the experiment. It allows continuous monitoring and minimizes variation due to transducer coupling. Moreover, relations describing the effects of the measurement system nonlinearity including the effects of the material transfer function on the measured nonlinearity parameter are derived. An in-situ high cycle fatigue test was conducted using two 304 stainless steel specimens with two different excitation frequencies. A comprehensive analysis of the nonlinear sources, which result in variations in the measured nonlinearity parameters, was performed and the effects of the system nonlinearities are explained and identified. In both specimens, monotonic trend was observed in nonlinear parameter when the value of fundamental amplitude was not changing.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.11
• /
• pp.1060-1066
• /
• 2007

When a high-energy ultrasound propagates through a solid body that contains a crack or a delamination, the two faces of the defect do not ordinarily vibrate in unison, and dissipative phenomena such as friction, rubbing and clapping between the faces will convert some of the vibrational energy to heat. By combining this heating effect with infrared imaging, one can detect a subsurface defect in material efficiently. In this paper a detection of the welding defect of thin SUS 304 plates using the UIR (ultrasonic infrared imaging) technology is described. A low frequency (20kHz) ultrasonic transducer was used to infuse the welded thin SUS 304 plates with a short pulse of sound for 280ms. The ultrasonic source has a maximum power of 2kW. The surface temperature of the area under inspection is imaged by a thermal infrared camera that is coupled to a fast frame grabber in a computer. The hot spots, which are a small area around the defect tip and heated up highly, are observed. From the sequence of the thermosonic images, the location of defective or inhomogeneous regions in the welded thin SUS 304 plates can be detected easily.