Abstract
Pipes of various shapes constitute pipelines utilized in industrial sites. These pipes are coupled through welding, wherein complex curvatures such as a flange, an elbow, a reducer, and a branch pipe are often found. Using phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) to inspect weld zones with complex curvatures is faced with different challenges due to parts that are difficult to contact with probes, small-diameter pipes, spatial limitations due to adjacent pipes, nozzles, and sloped shapes. In this study, we developed a flexible PAUT probe (FPAPr) and a semi-automatic scanner that was improved to enable stable FPAPr scanning for securing its inspection data consistency and reproducibility. A mock-up test specimen was created for a flange, an elbow, a reducer, and a branch pipe. Artificial flaws were inserted into the specimen through notch and hole processing, and simulations and verification experiments were performed to verify the performance and field applicability of the FPAPr and semi-automatic scanner.
Highlights
All flaws were presented as sector-scan (S-scan) images, and no particular skill was applied for flaw characterization
A weld overlay is inserted on the resulting image from a phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) inspection to simplify the assessment of the flaw position
We developed a flexible array probe and semi-auto scanner based on novel concepts to enhance the efficiency of non-destructive inspection of complex curvature-shaped specimens that are coupled by welding
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. A probe with various forms of elements, such as in phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT), is being developed and fabricated to supplement this limitation and improve the probability of detection (POD). Numerous institutions investigated enabling easy access for the PA probe on test specimens with a curvature [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. As anHowever, inspection device exclusively for acquiring signals, and mock-ups that incorporated previous studies were based on simple concave or convex curvatures, and most a notch, and through flaws that could be generated during welding, No were fabricatedwere as test werehole, verified simulations rather than experiments.
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