Capabilities of Ultrasonic Techniques for Far-Side Examinations of Austenitic Stainless Steel Piping Welds.
A study was conducted to assess the ability of advanced ultrasonic techniques to detect and accurately length-size flaws from the far-side of wrought austenitic piping welds. Far-side inspections of nuclear system piping welds are currently performed on a “best effort” basis and do not conform to ASME Code Section XI Appendix VIII performance demonstration requirements. For this study, austenitic stainless steel specimens with flaws located on the far-side of full penetration structural welds were used. The welds were fabricated with varied welding parameters to simulate as-built conditions in the components, and were examined with phased array technology at 2.0 MHz, and low-frequency/Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) methods in the 250-400 kHz regime. These results were compared to conventional ultrasonic techniques as a baseline. The examinations showed that both phased-array and low-frequency/SAFT were able to reliably detect and length-size, but not depth size, notches and implanted fatigue cracks through the welds.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 962033
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-49713; 401001060
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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