Using Low-Frequency Phased Arrays to Detect Cracks in Cast Austenitic Piping Components
As part of a multi-year program funded by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC) to address NDE reliability of inservice inspection (ISI) programs, recent studies conducted at the Pacific N¬orthwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, have focused on assessing novel NDE approaches for the inspection of coarse-grained, cast stainless steel reactor components. The primary objective of this work is to provide information to the US NRC on the utility, effec¬tiveness and reliability of ultrasonic testing (UT) and eddy current testing (ET) inspection techniques as related to the ISI of primary piping components in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). This paper describes progress, recent developments and early results from an assessment of a portion of this work relating to the ultrasonic low frequency phased array inspection technique. Westinghouse Owner’s Group (WOG) cast stainless steel pipe segments with thermal and mechanical fatigue cracks, PNNL samples containing thermal fatigue cracks and several blank vintage specimens having very coarse grains that are representative of early centrifugally cast piping installed in PWRs, are being used for assessing the inspection method. The phased array approach was implemented using an R/D Tech Tomoscan III system operating at 1.0 MHz and 500 kHz, providing composite volumetric images of the samples. Several dual, transmit-receive, custom designed low-frequency arrays are employed in laboratory trials. Results from laboratory studies for assessing detection of thermal and mechanical fatigue cracks in cast stainless steel piping welds are discussed. This work was sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission under Contract DE-AC06-76RLO 1830; NRC JCN Y6604; Mr. Wallace Norris, Program Monitor.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 901776
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-47563; 401001060; TRN: US0702662
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Proceedings of Combined EPRI Seventh Piping and Bolting and Fourth Phased Array Inspection Conference, 12 pages
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
DETECTION
EDDY CURRENT TESTING
EPRI
FASTENING
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
RELIABILITY
STAINLESS STEELS
THERMAL FATIGUE
ULTRASONIC TESTING
ULTRASONIC WAVES
US NRC
Low-Frequency
Ultrasonic
Phased Array
Cast Stainless Piping