Nohyu Kim

Harmonic generation of an obliquely incident ultrasonic wave in solid-solid contact interfaces.

The conventional acoustic nonlinear technique to evaluate the contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN) at solid-solid contact interfaces (e.g., closed cracks), which uses the through-transmission of normally incident bulk waves, is limited in that access to both the inner and outer surfaces of structures for attaching pulsing and receiving transducers is difficult. The angle beam incidence and reflection technique, where both the pulsing and receiving transducers are located on the same side of the target, may allow the above problem to be overcome. However, in the angle incidence technique, mode-conversion at the contact interfaces as well as the normal and tangential interface stiffness should be taken into account. Based on the linear and nonlinear contact stiffness, we propose a theoretical model for the reflection of an ultrasonic wave angularly incident on contact interfaces. In addition, the magnitude of the CAN-induced second harmonic wave in the reflected ultrasonic wave is predicted. Experimental results obtained for the contact interfaces of A16061-T6 alloy specimens at various loading pressures showed good agreement with theoretical predictions. Such agreement proves the validity of the suggested oblique incidence model.

Simulation of Excitation and Propagation of Pico-Second Ultrasound

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 ㎚.

Estimation of Hysteretic Interfacial Stiffness of Contact Surfaces

This paper proposes an ultrasonic method for measurement of linear and hysteretic interfacial stiffness of contacting surfaces between two steel plates subjected to nominal compression pressure. Interfacial stiffness was evaluated by the reflection and transmission coefficients obtained from three consecutive reflection waves from solid-solid surface using the shear wave. A nonlinear hysteretic spring model was proposed and used to define the quantitative interfacial stiffness of interface with the reflection and transmission coefficients. Acoustic model for 1-D wave propagation across interfaces is developed to formulate the reflection and transmission waves and to determine the linear and nonlinear hysteretic interfacial stiffness. Two identical plates are put together to form a contacting surface and pressed by bolt-fastening to measure interfacial stiffness at different states of contact pressure. It is found from experiment that the linear and hysteretic interfacial stiffness are successfully determined by the reflection and transmission coefficient at the contact surfaces through ultrasonic pulse-echo measurement.

NONLINEAR BEHAVIOR OF ULTRASONIC WAVE AT CRACK

A nonlinear model for contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN) of closed crack was proposed and analyzed to investigate the nonlinear characteristics of transmitted wave for normal incident wave. Closed crack was modeled as an imperfectly jointed interface that has nonlinear discontinuity in displacement across its boundary. Based on the interfacial stiffness of contact interface, a nonlinear parameter was defined as the ratio of second harmonic component to first harmonic, and derived in terms of discontinuous displacements across the interface. It is found that the amplitude of second order harmonic wave is highly dependent on interfacial stiffness. This was verified by experiments for a real crack. For this, a CT fatigue specimen of Al6061 with V‐notch was prepared to initiate the crack, and the amplitude of second order harmonic was measured by scanning along the crack direction. From the results of pre‐test to evaluate the contact condition of crack interfaces by monitoring the amplitudes of echo and thro...

Ultrasonic Estimation and FE Analysis of Elastic Modulus of Kelvin Foam

The elastic modulus of a 3D-printed Kelvin foam plate is investigated by measuring the acoustic wave velocity of 1 MHz ultrasound. An isotropic tetrakaidecahedron foam with 3 mm unit cell is designed and printed layer upon layer to fabricate a Kelvin foam plate of 14 mm thickness with a 3D CAD/printer using ABS plastic. The Kelvin foam plate is completely filled with paraffin wax for impedance matching, so that the acoustic wave may propagate through the porous foam plate. The acoustic wave velocity of the foam plate is measured using the time-of-flight (TOF) method and is used to calculate the elastic modulus of the Kelvin foam plate based on acousto-elasticity. Finite element method (FEM) and micromechanics is applied to the Kelvin foam plate to calculate the theoretical elastic modulus using a non-isotropic tetrakaidecahedron model. The predicted elastic modulus of the Kelvin foam plate from FEM and micromechanics model is similar, which is only 3-4% of the bulk material. The experimental value of the elastic modulus from the ultrasonic method is approximately twice as that of the numerical and theoretical methods because of the flexural deformation of the cell edges neglected in the ultrasonic method.

Stochastic Estimation of Acoustic Impedance of Glass-Reinforced Epoxy Coating

An epoxy coating applied to the concrete surface of a containment building deteriorates in hazardous environments such as those containing radiation, heat, and moisture. Unlike metals, the epoxy coating on a concrete liner absorbs and discharges moisture during the degradations process, so it has a different density and volume during service. In this study, acoustic impedance was adopted for characterizing the degradation of a glass-reinforced epoxy coating using the acoustic reflection coefficient (reflectance) on a rough epoxy coating. For estimating the acoustic reflectance on a wavy epoxy coating surface, a probabilistic model was developed to represent the multiple irregular reflections of the acoustic wave from the wavy surface on the basis of the simulated annealing technique. A number of epoxy-coated concrete specimens were prepared and exposed to accelerated aging conditions to induce an artificial aging degradation in them. The acoustic impedance of the degraded epoxy coating was estimated successfully by minimizing the error between a waveform calculated from the mathematical model and a waveform measured from the surface of the rough coating.

Thermographic Inspection of Fatigue Crack by Using Contact Thermal Resistance

Fatigue crack was detected from a temperature change around surface crack using the thermographic technique. Thermal gradient across the crack decreased very much due to thermal resistance of contact surface in the crack. Heat diffusion flow passing through the discontinuity was visualized in temperature by infrared camera to find and locate the crack. A fatigue crack specimen(SM-45C), which was prepared according to KS specification and notched in its center to initiate fatigue crack from the notch tip, was heated by halogen lamp at the end of one side to generate a heat diffusion flow in lateral direction. A abrupt jump in temperature across the fatigue crack was observed in thermographic image, by which the crack could be located and sized from temperature distribution.

Evaluation of cylindrical Hertzian contact using guided waves

This paper presents an ultrasonic method to evaluate the contact state of two solid boundaries using guided wave propagating between the joining surfaces. The main idea is that the guided wave travels with different wave velocity depending on the contact pressure of interface. Mathematical formulation for acoustic wave propagation at contacting solids was made to obtain the dispersive relation between acoustic wave and contact pressure. Three different kinds of steel block with cylindrical tip were machined and pressed together at various compression loads to form contact surfaces of different contacting condition. Guided wave reflected at the edge of the steel block was measured to determine wave speed using the time-of-flight, which increases sensitively with the load. Experimental results proved that contact states such as contact force and interfacial stiffness between two solid surfaces can be monitored by the acoustic wave speed of guided wave in the interface.

Analysis of Harmonic Wave Generation in Nonlinear Oblique Crack Surface

Based on the nonlinear spring model coupled with perturbation method, 2nd harmonic waves generated by oblique incident ultrasound on nonlinear crack interface were calculated and investigated. Reflected and transmitted waves from the interface were determined and analyzed at various angle of incidence for the cracks with different interfacial stiffness in order to estimate the 2nd harmonic generation of incident ultrasound. It was shown in computer simulation that the 2nd harmonic components changed much with the increase of incidence angle in both reflected and transmitted wave, but became very small when the incident angle approached toward 90 degree. It can be concluded that the 2nd harmonic component of reflected wave has a meaningful amplitude as much as the transmitted 2nd harmonic wave from partly closed crack.

Reflection and Transmission Characteristics of Oblique-Incidence Ultrasonic Waves at Solid-Solid Contact Interfaces

In order to evaluate the characteristics of solid-solid contact interfaces, reflection or transmission techniques involving normal-incidence longitudinal waves are generally used. However, these normal-incidence techniques are of limited use in field applications such as in the inspection of welded parts. The oblique-incidence ultrasonic technique may be an alternative for overcoming these problems. However, in this technique, the mode conversion at the contact interfaces should be taken into account along with the normal and tangential interface stiffness. In this study, we have suggested a theoretical model for obliqueincidence ultrasonic waves at the contact interfaces and analyzed their reflection and transmission characteristics. Experimental results showed that the measured reflection coefficient and second harmonic wave agreed well with the suggested theoretical model. Consequently, the oblique-incidence technique can be a promising method for evaluating the characteristics of the contact interfaces.