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 deformed 30Cr2Ni4MoV 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.