• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 1997

It is very essential to get the accurate classification of defects in primary pressure vessel and piping welds for the safety of nuclear power plant. Ultrasonic testing has been widely applied to inspect primary pressure vessel and piping welds of nuclear power plants during PSI / ISI. Classification of flaws in weldments from their ultrasonic scattering signals is very important in quantitative nondestructive evaluation. This problem is ideally suited to a modern ultrasonic Pattern recognition technique. Here, a brief discussion on systematic approach to this methodology is presented including ultrasonic feature extraction, feature selection and classification. A stronger emphasis is placed on Fuzzy-UTSCS (UT signal classification system) as efficient classifiers for many practical classification problems. As an example Fuzzy-UTSCS is applied to classify flaws in ferrite pressure vessel weldments into two types such as linear and volumetric. It is shown that Fuzzy-UTSCS is able to exhibit higher performance than other classifiers in the defect classification.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.46-53
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• 2001

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new feature selection method for AE signal classification. The neural network of back propagation algorithm is used. The proposed feature selection method uses the difference between feature coordinates in feature space. This method is compared with the existing methods such as Fisher's criterion, class mean scatter criterion and eigenvector analysis in terms of the recognition rate and the convergence speed, using the signals from the defects in welding zone of austenitic stainless steel and in the metal contact of the rotary compressor. The proposed feature selection methods such as 2-D and 3-D criteria showed better results in the recognition rate than the existing ones.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2001

A software package to classify acoustic emission (AE) signals using the wavelet transform and the neural network was developed Both of the continuous and the discrete wavelet transforms are considered, and the error back-propagation neural network is adopted as m artificial neural network algorithm. The signals acquired during the 3-point bending test of specimens which have artificial defects on weld zone are used for the classification of the defects. Features are extracted from the time-frequency plane which is the result of the wavelet transform of signals, and the neural network classifier is tamed using the extracted features to classify the signals. It has been shown that the developed software package is useful to classify AE signals. The difference between the classification results by the continuous and the discrete wavelet transforms is also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.104-109
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• 2010

Lap joint friction stir welding(LFSW) is an relatively new solid state joining process. A6061-T6 aluminium alloy has gathered wide acceptance in the fabrication of light weight structures requiring a high strength to weight ratio and good corrosion resistance. Test methods used in this paper, lock-in thermography, a phase difference between the defect area and the healthy area indicates the qualitative location and size of the defect. In this paper, the defects detected from the thermal image of mechanical properties for weld were evaluated and compared by the lock-in infrared thermography technique.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.368-375
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• 2013

Failure of small bore piping welds is a recurring problem at nuclear power plants. And the socket weld cracking in small bore piping has caused unplanned plant shutdowns for repair and high economic impact on the plants. Consequently, early crack detection, including the detection of manufacturing defects, is of the utmost importance. Until now, the surface inspection methods has been applied according to ASME Section XI requirements. But the ultrasonic inspection as a volumetric method is also applying to enforce the inspection requirement. However, the conventional manual ultrasonic inspection techniques are used to detect service induced fatigue cracks. And there was uncertainty on manual ultrasonic inspection because of limited access to the welds and difficulties with contact between the ultrasonic probe and the OD(outer diameter) surface of small bore piping. In this study, phased array ultrasonic inspection technique is applied to increase inspection speed and reliability. To achieve this object, the 3.5 MHz phased array ultrasonic transducer are designed and fabricated. The manually encoded scanner was also developed to enhance contact conditions and maintain constant signal quality. Additionally inspection system is configured and inspection procedure is developed.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.35-40
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• 2014

The contact tip for gas metal arc welding has important functions to transmit the welding current to the wire and to guide the wire to molten pool. If the contact tip is damaged, it is a cause of lowering the welding productivity due to removal of welding defects and replacement of contact tip. In case of the use of a contact tip for a long time the arc is unstable because the processed hole in the contact tip center is larger, and the variation of aiming position of the welding wire causes a seam tracking error. In this study, gas metal arc welding experiments using contact tip of three different materials were performed. The contact tips with Cu-P, Cu-Cr, and Cu-ODS were used at the experiments, and the welding characteristics by each contact tip were evaluated. After welding contact tip appearance, welding spatter adhesion amount of the nozzle, and weld bead appearance were evaluated. The welding current and welding voltage were measured to verify arc stability during arc welding.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.2136-2146
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• 2006

A study on a creep-fatigue crack growth behavior has been carried out for a cylindrical structure with weldments by using a structural test and an evaluation according to the assessment procedures. The creep-fatigue crack growth behavior following the creep-fatigue crack initiation has been assessed by using the French A16 procedure and the conservatism for the present structural test has been examined. The structural specimen is a welded cylindrical shell made of 316 L stainless steel (SS) for one half of the cylinder and 304 SS for the other half. In the creep-fatigue test, the hold time under a tensile load which produces the primary nominal stress of 45 MPa was one hour at $600^{\circ}C$ and creep-fatigue loads of 600 cycles were applied. The evaluation results for the creep-fatigue crack propagation were compared with those of the observed images from the structural test. The assessment results for the creep-fatigue crack behavior according to the French Al6 procedure showed that the Al6 is overly conservative for the creep-fatigue crack propagation in the present case with a short hold time of one hour.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1597-1601
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• 2020

Background: Non-destructive evaluation of defects in metals or composites specimens is a regular method in radiographic imaging. The maintenance examination of metallic structures is a relatively difficult effort that requires robust techniques for use in industrial environments. Methods: In this research, iron plate, lead marker and tungsten defect with a 0.1 cm radius in spherical shape were separately simulated by MCNP code and SuperMC software. By ¹⁹²Ir radiation source, two exposures were considered to determine the depth of the actual defined defect in the software. Also by the code, displacement shift of the defect were computed derived from changing the source location along the x- or y-axis. Results: The computed defect depth was identified 0.71 cm in comparison to the actual one with accuracy of 13%. Meanwhile, the defect position was recognized by disorder and reduction in obtained gamma flux. The flux amount along the x-axis was approximately 0.5E+11 units greater than the y-axis. Conclusion: This study provides a method for detecting the depth and position of the defect in a particular sample by combining code and software simulators.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.70-77
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to compare the quality of digital radiography image with that of classical film images for welded structure in power plants. The CMOS(Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) flat panel detecter and Agfa D5 film are used to image flaw specimens respectively. In the test, CMOS flat panel detector has been determined to have a better image than that of film image. In the IQI(Image Quality Indicator) transmission test, one or two more line can be seen in digital image than in film image. Digital Radiography Test enabled to successfully detect all defects on the weld specimens fabricated with real reheat stem pipe and boiler tube as well. In the specific comparison test, Digital radiography test detected micro flaws in the size of 0.5 mm in length by 0.5 mm in depth. However, film test has limited it to 1.0 mm in length by 1.0 mm in depth. As a result of this study, digital radiography technology is estimated well enough to perform the inspection in the industry with far more cost effective way, compared to the classical film test.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.29-35
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• 2020

This paper studies the main parameters of tube-to-bar dissimilar material and shape friction welding for piping materials. The weldability of joint parts was investigated with respect to tensile tests, micro-Vickers hardness, the bond of area, and optical microstructure. The specimens are tested as-welded. Optimal welding conditions are n = 2000 rpm, HP = 50 MPa, UP = 100 MPa, HT = 5 sec, and UT = 10 sec when the metal loss (Mo) is 11 mm. Moreover, the same two materials for friction welding are strongly mixed with a well-combined structure of micro-particles without any molten material, particle growth, or defects. Therefore, the expected result of dissimilar material friction welding includes a reduction of cost and material in the welding process.