Online Monitoring of Electron Beam Welding of TI6AL4V Alloy Through Acoustic Emission

Acoustic Emission (AE) Technique is the only Non Destructive Testing (NDT) method that can be thought of to be used as an online monitoring tool for detection, location and characterization of various kinds of active defects during any process. An effective approach of quality control is defect detection during welding process itself rather than by NDT of component after welding. Weld defects generated during an Electron Beam Welding (EBW) process can be monitored through on-line acoustic emission analysis (AEA). The principle of AEA is based on the fact that the formation of defects in a material is accompanied by dissipation of energy in the form of acoustic waves, which can be detected by piezo-electric sensors, mounted on the surface of the component. After detection the acoustic waves are analyzed, to obtain the information about the nature and location of the defect formed. In the present work, an attempt is made to monitor formation of defects during EBW of Titanium alloys sheets using AEA and the results of this study are presented in this paper.