Array imaging of inhomogeneous steel welds by measurement of weld material maps
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
This proposal seeks funding for a three year research programme into the radical improvement of defect detection and sizing in inhomogeneous welds, such as austenitic steel welds. Welds of high temperature steels such as austenitic steels and Inconel have stiffness properties which are typically both anisotropic and inhomogeneous, so that ultrasonic wave rays tend to deviate and scatter. This results in inaccurate interpretation of defect sizes. Knowledge of weld maps which describe how the material properties vary throughout the weld, applied to wave propagation models, would allow array images to be corrected to compensate for the deviations of the rays. Work at Manchester University will investigate how weld maps can be constructed, using sectioning, experimental measurements, and materials modelling. Work at Imperial College will investigate the use of ultrasonic array measurements in order to measure such maps non-destructively. The findings will be combined to create a procedure to correct array images to enable accurate sizing of the defects. The work will be done in collaboration with two industrial companies who will both provide realistic weld specimens.The proposal is being submitted within the UK Research Centre in NDE (RCNDE) to the targeted research programme, the funding for which is earmarked by EPSRC for industrially driven research.
People |
ORCID iD |
Michael Lowe (Principal Investigator) | |
Peter Cawley (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Fan Z
(2015)
Nonintrusive estimation of anisotropic stiffness maps of heterogeneous steel welds for the improvement of ultrasonic array inspection.
in IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control
Mark AF
(2017)
Comparison of grain to grain orientation and stiffness mapping by spatially resolved acoustic spectroscopy and EBSD.
in Journal of microscopy
Mark A
(2014)
Investigation of the elastic/crystallographic anisotropy of welds for improved ultrasonic inspections
in Materials Characterization
Huthwaite P
(2013)
High resolution guided wave tomography
Description | Welds in many safety-critical components, such as nuclear power plant, are made of materials that deviate the path of ultrasound rays that are being used to inspect them. This causes errors in ultrasonic images and consequent errors in sizing and locating defects. This project delivered a non-destructive methodology to measure stiffness maps of weld materials using array measurements, that can then be used to correct the images. |
Exploitation Route | The practical output is ready for deployment in industry, and this is happening. The research output could be used for further development of weld inspection techniques. A European project to do this has been awarded, with £4M funding across 12 partners, starting September 2017. |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
Description | At completion of the project a package for industrial deployment was prepared and delivered to the industrial partners. This package included software codes and instructions for their use. Users of this package should be able to adapt their own array imaging of inhomogeneous welds such that they can correct for the inhomogeneity in their imaging of defects in welds, and thus achieve much improved location and characterisation of defects. The package is currently being used by two partners, and the other partner is planning to use it. The delivered capabilities were also offered to any other interested parties by a well-attended Technology Readiness Level (TRL) workshop, run by the UK Research Centre for NDE. Subsequently, the capabilities arising from this work formed a key element for a 4 year £4M EU H2020 project, ADVISE, which started in September 2017. |
First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Energy |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | R-R ultrasound NDE |
Organisation | Rolls Royce Group Plc |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Develop ultrasound NDE methods for use by R-R for inspections of nuclear power plant components |
Collaborator Contribution | Cash, steering meetings, deployment of outcomes within the company |
Impact | Technology transfer to partners, publications |
Start Year | 2010 |