各向异性焊缝缺陷超声阵列全聚焦成像方法

针对奥氏体不锈钢焊接构件安全评价需要,对各向异性结构中超声波传播特性进行了研究,利用射线追踪法确定了各向异性介质中声波传播路径。在传统全聚焦成像基础上,发展了一种用于各向异性焊缝中缺陷检测的超声阵列全聚焦成像方法。通过数值仿真和实验,研究了介质材质对超声阵列成像的影响,结果表明,发展的全聚焦成像方法可以很好实现各向异性焊缝中缺陷检测,缺陷定位更准确。项目研究工作为奥氏体不锈钢焊缝检测提供了可行的技术方案.     

Ultrasonic reflection properties of planar defects within austenitic welds

Reflection of ultrasonic beams from the faces of planar weld defects is affected by the anisotropic nature of the weld material. The simple laws of geometrical reflection no longer hold and energy may be strongly reflected into unexpected directions. This has important consequences for ultrasonic inspection techniques relying on specular signals for defect detection. In this Paper a ray tracing approach is used to study, theoretically, the expected patterns of defect reflection behaviour for several weld types and several defect locations and orientations. In general we find that when the ultrasonic beam is generated in the austenitic weld material without first passing through the base metal then the strongly reflected specular signal travels in very unexpected directions. If, however, the ultrasonic beam travels into the weld metal via the base metal then reflected signals usually occur close to the expected directions, except for vertically polarized shear waves. Furthermore, for a given weld type it is obviously useful to minimize ultrasonic ray paths within the weld material, to minimize both attenuation and curvature of ray paths.     

B型套筒角焊缝缺陷相控阵超声检测定量方法

B型套筒修复作为油气管道修复的主要方式之一,在其修复的焊接过程中,该结构的环形角焊缝内部常常出现以气孔、夹渣为代表的孔型缺陷。这类缺陷由于角焊缝特殊的结构,在利用相控阵超声无损检测技术对其检测时,难以对其进行定量分析。通过数值模拟和实验,发现通过相控阵超声扇扫得到缺陷回波信号峰值与孔型缺陷直径呈正相关,为孔型缺陷的定量分析提供了一种可靠的手段。     

焊缝散射对板中超声水平剪切导波直线合成孔径阵列成像的影响

为探讨焊缝散射与板中超声导波阵列成像之间的关系,提出了将散射渡越时间矩阵作为分析工具用来开展焊缝散射对板中超声水平剪切(Shear horizontal,SH)导波直线合成孔径阵列成像影响的研究。运用散射因子和散射渡越时间矩阵描述焊缝散射,结合分析超声SH导波直线阵列信号所特有的圆锥曲线特征和合成孔径成像算法,从导波阵列信号和阵列成像机理出发,重点研究了焊缝散射因子和散射渡越时间矩阵在阵列成像中的作用。结果显示,焊缝散射易造成同一成像散射体反射声波的阵列信号形成"多峰",焊缝散射因子随之同步变大,散射渡越时间矩阵的秩随之成倍数关系增大,导致导波图像相应出现对应倍数的"条带"伪像,图像椭圆簇轨迹特征复杂化,特别是图像背景噪声增幅可达50%,图像信噪比减小幅度可达10%。成像实验验证了理论分析的有效性,表明散射渡越时间矩阵是研究焊缝散射对超声导波阵列成像影响规律的有力工具,该影响规律的揭示可为深入开展焊接板结构超声导波阵列图像处理和图像识别提供基础。      

Grain fragmentation in ultrasonic-assisted TIG weld of pure aluminum

Under the action of acoustic waves during an ultrasonic-assisted tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding process, a grain of a TIG weld of aluminum alloy is refined by nucleation and grain fragmentation. Herein, effects of ultrasound on grain fragmentation in the TIG weld of aluminum alloy are investigated via systematic welding experiments of pure aluminum. First, experiments involving continuous and fixed-position welding are performed, which demonstrate that ultrasound can break the grain of the TIG weld of pure aluminum. The microstructural characteristics of an ultrasonic-assisted TIG weld fabricated by fixed-position welding are analyzed. The microstructure is found to transform from plane crystal, columnar crystal, and uniform equiaxed crystal into plane crystal, deformed columnar crystal, and nonuniform equiaxed crystal after application of ultrasound. Second, factors influencing ultrasonic grain fragmentation are investigated. The ultrasonic amplitude and welding current are found to have a considerable effect on grain fragmentation. The degree of fragmentation first increases and then decreases with an increase in ultrasonic amplitude, and it increases with an increase in welding current. Measurement results of the vibration of the weld pool show that the degree of grain fragmentation is related to the intensity of acoustic nonlinearity in the weld pool. The greater the intensity of acoustic nonlinearity, the greater is the degree of grain fragmentation. Finally, the mechanism of ultrasonic grain fragmentation in the TIG weld of pure aluminum is discussed. A finite element simulation is used to simulate the acoustic pressure and flow in the weld pool. The acoustic pressure in the weld pool exceeds the cavitation threshold, and cavitation bubbles are generated. The flow velocity in the weld pool does not change noticeably after application of ultrasound. It is concluded that the high-pressure conditions induced during the occurrence of cavitation, lead to grain fragmentation in a pure aluminum TIG weld during an ultrasonic-assisted TIG welding process.     

On the scattering of torsional elastic waves from axisymmetric defects in coated pipes

Long range ultrasonic testing is now a well established method for examining in-service degradation in pipelines. In order to protect pipelines from the surrounding environment it is common for viscoelastic coatings to be applied to the outer surface. These coatings are, however, known to impact on the ability of long range ultrasonic techniques to locate degradation, or defects, within a coated pipe. The coating dissipates sound energy travelling along the pipe, attenuating both the incident and reflected signals making responses from defects difficult to detect. This article aims to investigate the influence of a viscoelastic coating on the ability of long range ultrasonic testing to detect a defect in an axisymmetric pipe. The article focuses on understanding the behaviour of the fundamental torsional mode and quantifying the effect of bitumen coatings on reflection coefficients generated by axisymmetric defects. Reflection coefficients are measured experimentally for coated and uncoated pipes and compared to theoretical predictions generated using numerical mode matching and a hybrid finite element technique. Good agreement between prediction and measurement is observed for uncoated pipes, and it is shown that the theoretical methods presented here are fast and efficient making them suitable for studying long pipe runs. However, when studying coated pipes agreement between theory and prediction is observed to be poor for predictions based on those bulk acoustic properties currently reported in the literature for bitumen. Good agreement is observed only after conducting a parametric study to identify more appropriate values for the bulk acoustic properties. Furthermore, the reflection coefficients obtained for the fundamental torsional mode in a coated pipe show that significant sound attenuation is present over relatively short lengths of coating, thus quantifying those problems commonly encountered with the use of long range ultrasonic testing on coated pipes in the field.     

Experimental and numerical studies of nonlinear ultrasonic responses on plastic deformation in weld joints

The experimental measurements and numerical simulations are performed to study ultrasonic nonlinear responses from the plastic deformation in weld joints. The ultrasonic nonlinear signals are measured in the plastic deformed30Cr2Ni4 Mo V specimens, and the results show that the nonlinear parameter monotonically increases with the plastic strain, and that the variation of nonlinear parameter in the weld region is maximal compared with those in the heat-affected zone and base regions. Microscopic images relating to the microstructure evolution of the weld region are studied to reveal that the change of nonlinear parameter is mainly attributed to dislocation evolutions in the process of plastic deformation loading. Meanwhile, the finite element model is developed to investigate nonlinear behaviors of ultrasonic waves propagating in a plastic deformed material based on the nonlinear stress–strain constitutive relationship in a medium. Moreover, a pinned string model is adopted to simulate dislocation evolution during plastic damages. The simulation and experimental results show that they are in good consistency with each other, and reveal a rising acoustic nonlinearity due to the variations of dislocation length and density and the resulting stress concentration.     

特殊几何构件超声衍射时差法技术有限元模拟

衍射时差法(Time of flight diffraction,TOFD)技术是一种能够探测和精确测量缺陷尺寸的新型超声无损检测方法,针对该检测方法具有缺陷检出率高、缺陷定位定量精度高等优点。本文采用商业有限元软件ABAQUS,对汽包筒体与球形封头不等厚对接和超高压水晶釜两种特殊几何构件进行了超声TOFD技术的二维数值模拟研究,分析了超声波在这两种构件中的传播特性和规律。经分析从构件表面不同位置接收到的波型,当构件中存在损伤时,通过接收损伤所引起的衍射波,可判断构件中是否存在缺陷。模拟结果表明能够将超声TOFD技术应用于这两种特殊结构的压力容器构件,可扩大超声TOFD技术的应用范围。     

基于超声相控阵的环焊缝缺陷检测方法研究

针对传统超声探头焦距固定,检测位置的改变就要更换相应焦距的探头而影响检测效率的问题,提出一种基于超声相控阵换能器的环焊缝缺陷检测方法。而超声相控阵具有电子偏转和电子聚焦特性,能在不移动的情况下发射偏转聚焦超声束,有效地解决了上述问题。首先基于超声相控线阵换能器的声场特点,采用数值分析方法,研究了影响声束偏转聚焦性能的几个主要参数。然后给出了与超声相控阵换能器相连接的多通道数据采集系统结构。介绍了单通道声信号的硬件结构及相应的信号处理方法,实现了对换能器中单个阵元的精确延时的控制。实验结果表明,优化设计的超声相控线阵换能器具有较高的检测精度和检测效率。     

Lamb waves topological imaging combining with Green's function retrieval theory to detect near filed defects in isotropic plates

A method of combining Green's function retrieval theory and ultrasonic array imaging using Lamb waves is presented to solve near filed defects in thin aluminum plates.The defects are close to the ultrasonic phased array and satisfy the near field calculation formula.Near field acoustic information of defects is obscured by the nonlinear effects of initial wave signal in a directly acquired response using the full matrix capture mode.A reconstructed full matrix of inter-element responses is produced from cross-correlation of directly received ultrasonic signals between sensor pairs.This new matrix eliminates the nonlinear interference and restores the near-field defect information.The topological imaging method that was developed in recent ultrasonic inspection is used for displaying the scatterers.The experiments are conducted on both thin aluminum plates containing two and four defects, respectively.The results show that these defects are clearly identified when using a reconstructed full matrix.The spatial resolution is equal to about one wavelength of the selectively excited mode and the identifiable defect is about one fifth of the wavelength.However, in a conventional directly captured image,the images of defects overlap together and cannot be distinguished.The proposed method reduces the background noise and allows for effective topological imaging of near field defects.     

Quantitative evaluation of ultrasonic C-scan image in acoustically homogeneous and layered anisotropic materials using three dimensional ray tracing method

Quantitative evaluation of ultrasonic C-scan images in homogeneous and layered anisotropic austenitic materials is of general importance for understanding the influence of anisotropy on wave fields during ultrasonic non-destructive testing and evaluation of these materials. In this contribution, a three dimensional ray tracing method is presented for evaluating ultrasonic C-scan images quantitatively in general homogeneous and layered anisotropic austenitic materials. The directivity of the ultrasonic ray source in general homogeneous columnar grained anisotropic austenitic steel material (including layback orientation) is obtained in three dimensions based on Lamb’s reciprocity theorem. As a prerequisite for ray tracing model, the problem of ultrasonic ray energy reflection and transmission coefficients at an interface between (a) isotropic base material and anisotropic austenitic weld material (including layback orientation), (b) two adjacent anisotropic weld metals and (c) anisotropic weld metal and isotropic base material is solved in three dimensions. The influence of columnar grain orientation and layback orientation on ultrasonic C-scan image is quantitatively analyzed in the context of ultrasonic testing of homogeneous and layered austenitic steel materials. The presented quantitative results provide valuable information during ultrasonic characterization of homogeneous and layered anisotropic austenitic steel materials.     

Ultrasonic beam profiles and beam propagation in an austenitic weld using a theoretical ray tracing model

A model for ultrasonic wave propagation in anisotropic and inhomogeneous materials is applied to the case of ultrasonic inspection of an austenitic V-butt weld manufactured by the downhand Manual Metal Arc technique. We examine the propagation behaviour of waves within the weld region and, in addition, model beam divergence behaviour. From this work we predict directions of low inspection sensitivity and also identify regions of material to which no ultrasound penetrates. The relative merits of the three different wave modes are examined, showing clearly the advantages of horizontally polarized shear waves for austenitic steel inspection. Vertically polarized shear waves are shown to be the least effective for such inspections. We discuss the relevance of this work to the ultrasonic non-destructive testing of austenitic steel components, concluding that care is needed over the choice of wave modes and angles, to ensure sensitive inspection of the whole weld material.     

Spatially resolved ultrasonic attenuation in resistance spot welds: implications for nondestructive testing

Spatial variation of ultrasonic attenuation and velocity has been measured in plane parallel specimens extracted from resistance spot welds. In a strong weld, attenuation is larger in the nugget than in the parent material, and the region of increased attenuation is surrounded by a ring of decreased attenuation. In the center of a stick weld, attenuation is even larger than in a strong weld, and the low-attenuation ring is absent. These spatial variations are interpreted in terms of differences in grain size and martensite formation. Measured frequency dependences indicate the presence of an additional attenuation mechanism besides grain scattering. The observed attenuations do not vary as commonly presumed with weld quality, suggesting that the common practice of using ultrasonic attenuation to indicate weld quality is not a reliable methodology.     

焊缝超声相控阵检测数据深度学习降噪方法

超声相控阵检测技术在焊缝检测中具有广泛的应用.超声相控阵检测技术检测信号中常混入噪声导致检测成像时难以分辨真实的缺陷特征.这些噪声主要为无关的反射信号和局部相关的结构噪声,传统的超声图像降噪方法难以有效滤除这些噪声,且存在计算效率低、参数优化复杂等问题.该文提出了一种基于深度学习的焊缝超声相控阵检测技术检测S扫图像的降...     

步进追频及恒振幅控制的超声电源设计

针对超声金属焊接过程中出现的负载变化导致谐振频率漂移和焊接振幅失恒问题,设计了一种基于步进追频及恒振幅控制的超声电源。在负载变化对谐振频率影响的研究基础上,根据FPGA-DDS步进追频原理设计了负载变化追频逻辑;结合全桥逆变电路的移相控制方式,研究了不同占空比下的最大输入电流与最大焊接振幅的关系,提出了基于输入电流反馈下的步进移相恒振幅控制方案;实验结果表明,负载变化追频逻辑实现了谐振频率快速变化下的动态实时追踪,解决了因频率失谐导致的焊接振幅非线性下降问题。同时,在加入了振幅闭环控制后,实现了焊接振幅相对极差稳定在10%以内。     

Fractal properties of acoustic location responses

The fractal dimension of reflected ultrasonic signals in steel slabs with wittingly introduced defects is analyzed. The dependence of the fractal dimension on the defect size is demonstrated. The resolving power of a method used to estimate the fractal dimension of acoustic location responses and its applicability in practical flaw detection are considered.     

Modelling the attenuation in the ATHENA finite elements code for the ultrasonic testing of austenitic stainless steel welds

Multipass welds made in austenitic stainless steel, in the primary circuit of nuclear power plants with pressurized water reactors, are characterized by an anisotropic and heterogeneous structure that disturbs the ultrasonic propagation and makes ultrasonic non-destructive testing difficult. The ATHENA 2D finite element simulation code was developed to help understand the various physical phenomena at play. In this paper, we shall describe the attenuation model implemented in this code to give an account of wave scattering phenomenon through polycrystalline materials. This model is in particular based on the optimization of two tensors that characterize this material on the basis of experimental values of ultrasonic velocities attenuation coefficients. Three experimental configurations, two of which are representative of the industrial welds assessment case, are studied in view of validating the model through comparison with the simulation results. We shall thus provide a quantitative proof that taking into account the attenuation in the ATHENA code dramatically improves the results in terms of the amplitude of the echoes. The association of the code and detailed characterization of a weld’s structure constitutes a remarkable breakthrough in the interpretation of the ultrasonic testing on this type of component.     

Theoretical assessment of the errors involved in ultrasonic location and sizing of molten weld pools

Ultrasonic transit times may be used to locate the interface between molten weld metal and parent plate as a weld is formed. These transit times will lead to errors in interpretation of the location of the weld interface if account is not taken of the variation of ultrasonic velocity with temperature. We assess the magnitude of these errors using a theoretical model based on the Green's function to obtain the temperature distribution at any time and then convert the temperatures into elastic constants through empirical fits to high temperature data. A ray tracing method and a semi-analytical approach are used to estimate the effects of the changes in elastic constants on the ray paths and transit times. From these theoretical predictions we conclude that the location errors incurred by assuming ultrasonic velocities appropriate to cold metal are less than 0.5 mm for a 3.5 mm radius weld in austenitic steel or in iron. Experimental values tend to be larger than this, possibly suggesting that the solid-liquid interface is not as perfect as in the theoretical model. Under all of the conditions investigated, predicted errors are smaller with compression waves than with shear waves.     

不同焊接位置对5A90铝锂合金激光焊接质量的影响(英)

针对铝锂合金激光焊接产生的成形不良和气孔缺陷,探究不同焊接位置对焊缝成形及气孔的影响,并对比分析不同焊接位置熔池受力状态、熔融金属流动和小孔动态行为,解释缺陷形成及其抑制机理。研究发现:不同焊接位置熔池受力状态和熔融金属流动决定焊缝成形。平焊时焊缝成形差、下榻严重;横焊时背面焊缝不连续,有飞溅;立向上焊时背面焊缝内凹严重;立向下焊可得到最优焊缝成形和最优的气孔缺陷。焊缝气孔受小孔动态行为影响,不同焊接位置气孔随热输入的变化规律一致,气孔先增后减,在仅熔池透状态下有气孔最大值。立上焊时小孔不稳定,焊缝气孔多且分布杂乱;立向下焊时小孔稳定性高,气孔最少,主要分布在焊缝中心线上。