Development of a twin crystal membrane coupled conformable phased array for the inspection of austenitic welds

Journal Article · Thu Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3591931· OSTI ID:21511651

Russell, J ^[1]; Long, R; Cawley, P ^[2]

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1. Rolls-Royce, Derby, DE21 7XX (United Kingdom)
2. UK Research Centre in NDE, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)

The inspection of welded austenitic stainless steel components can be challenging. Austenitic welds contain an anisotropic, inhomogeneous grain structure which causes attenuation, scattering and beam bending. The inspection of components where the weld cap has not been removed is even more difficult due to the irregularity of the surface geometry. A twin crystal membrane coupled device has now been produced containing two linear phased arrays positioned adjacent to one another within the same housing. The arrays are angled relative to one another so that the transducer provides a pseudo-focusing effect at a depth corresponding to the beam crossing point. This type of design is used to improve the signal to noise ratio of the defect response in comparison to simple linear phased array transducer designs and to remove an internal noise signal found in linear phased array devices. Experimental results obtained from the through weld inspection of an austenitic stainless steel component with an undressed weld cap using the twin crystal membrane device are presented. These results demonstrate that small lack of side wall fusion defects can be reliably detected in large complex structures.

• OSTI ID: 21511651
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1335, Issue 1; Conference: Review of progress in quantitative nondestructive evaluation, San Diego, CA (United States), 18-23 Jul 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3591931; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
ANISOTROPY
ATTENUATION
AUSTENITIC STEELS
BEAMS
BENDING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPLEXES
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
CRYSTALS
DEFECTS
DEPTH
DESIGN
EQUIPMENT
FOCUSING
GEOMETRY
INSPECTION
MEMBRANES
NOISE
ORIENTATION
SCATTERING
SIGNALS
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
SURFACES
TRANSDUCERS
WALLS
WELDED JOINTS
ALLOYS
CARBON ADDITIONS
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DEFORMATION
DIMENSIONLESS NUMBERS
DIMENSIONS
EVALUATION
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
JOINTS
MATHEMATICS
STEELS
TRANSITION ELEMENT ALLOYS