A Study on Ultrasonic Testing for Nondestructive Evaluation of Thermal Fatigue Crack in Pipelines

Abstract

Pipelines of nuclear power plants undergo high pressure and temperature. Thermal stratification typically occurs in the surge line and the main feed water lines by flow and this stratification will initiate and propagate thermal fatigue cracks. This may cause rupture and leakage and it is a serious problem to nuclear power plants operation. Therefore it is very important to detect and measure thermal fatigue cracks. In this study, thermal fatigue cracks were generated in austenitic stainless steel specimens by a thermal cycle in notched pipes and weld jointed pipes. Ultrasonic techniques were used to evaluate the thermal fatigue crack depth. When ultrasonic waves propagate from an angle beam probe to thermal fatigue cracks, waves are reflected and diffracted. Crack depth was evaluated by the reflected signals from back wall and diffracted signals from the crack tip, but diffracted signals were too weak to detect so the reflected signals were more useful. The TOFD and dB drop methods were used in this study. The TOFD method is uses a time delay of diffracted signal from the crack tip. The dB drop method is an application of an amplitude decreasing rate by a probe moving distance.