AN ULTRASONIC PHASED ARRAY EVALUATION OF CAST AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL PRESSURIZER SURGE LINE PIPING WELDS

Conference · Thu Jul 22 04:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:1013942

Diaz, Aaron A; Cinson, Anthony D; Crawford, Susan L; Moran, Traci L; Anderson, Michael T

A set of circumferentially oriented thermal fatigue cracks (TFCs) were implanted into three cast austenitic stainless steel (CASS) pressurizer (PZR) surge-line specimens (pipe-to-elbow welds) that were fabricated using vintage CASS materials formed in the 1970s, and flaw responses from these cracks were used to evaluate detection and sizing performance of the phased-array (PA) ultrasonic testing (UT) methods applied. Four different custom-made PA probes were employed in this study, operating nominally at 800 kHz, 1.0 MHz, 1.5 MHz, and 2.0 MHz center frequencies. The CASS PZR surge-line specimens were polished and chemically etched to bring out the microstructures of both pipe and elbow segments. Additional studies were conducted and documented to address baseline CASS material noise and observe possible ultrasonic beam redirection phenomena.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1013942
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-71595; 401001060
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
DEFECTS
DETECTION
EVALUATION
NDE
PERFORMANCE
PRESSURE VESSELS
PRESSURIZERS
PROBES
SIZE
STAINLESS STEELS
SURGES
THERMAL FATIGUE
ULTRASONIC TESTING
ULTRASONIC WAVES
Ultrasonic
coarse-grained steel
vintage CASS