Ultrasonic Study of Crack under a Dynamic Thermal Load

In piping the defects play a key role for determining the life of component. Also the risk for pipe failure combined to the defects has to be taken into account. In this study thermal dynamic load has been applied to austenitic material (Aisi 304) in order to introduce dynamic behaviour into the crack. The studied crack (~20 mm ! 7 mm) has been produced by thermal fatigue in advance. Different ultrasonic techniques were used to reveal information from interaction of ultrasonic waves from dynamic behaviour of a crack face in the sonified volume. The ultrasonic probes in the study are typical probes for defect detection and sizing on site inspections This information helps us to understand some effects in nuclear piping such as detection of cracks with special techniques and difficulties in sizing of the cracks in real situations. In this case the material is loaded to exceed the yield strength. The thermal cycles used caused high variations in the temperature scale from 20°C (68 F) to 600°C (1112 F) in the crack volume especially on the crack surface area. These factors cause large stress variations in the vicinity of the crack. Effects which have been detected during analysis from the measurements explain well difficulties in ultrasonic inspections of those materials on site. Experimental work explains reasons why some defects are missed in the real piping. Ultrasonic techniques used are described in details and conclusion for applicability of those techniques has been drawn.