B. Venkataraman

Intercomparison of gamma scattering, gammatography, and radiography techniques for mild steel nonuniform corrosion detection

This paper focuses on the mild steel (MS) corrosion detection and intercomparison of results obtained by gamma scattering, gammatography, and radiography techniques. The gamma scattering non-destructive evaluation (NDE) method utilizes scattered gamma radiation for the detection of corrosion, and the scattering experimental setup is an indigenously designed automated personal computer (PC) controlled scanning system consisting of computerized numerical control (CNC) controlled six-axis source detector system and four-axis job positioning system. The system has been successfully used to quantify the magnitude of corrosion and the thickness profile of a MS plate with nonuniform corrosion, and the results are correlated with those obtained from the conventional gammatography and radiography imaging measurements. A simple and straightforward reconstruction algorithm to reconstruct the densities of the objects under investigation and an unambiguous interpretation of the signal as a function of material density at any point of the thick object being inspected is described. In this simple and straightforward method the density of the target need not be known and only the knowledge of the target materials mass attenuation coefficients (composition) for the incident and scattered energies is enough to reconstruct the density of the each voxel of the specimen being studied. The Monte Carlo (MC) numerical simulation of the phenomena is done using the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP) and the quantitative estimates of the values of signal-to-noise ratio for different percentages of MS corrosion derived from these simulations are presented and the spectra are compared with the experimental data. The gammatography experiments are carried out using the same PC controlled scanning system in a narrow beam, good geometry setup, and the thickness loss is estimated from the measured transmitted intensity. Radiography of the MS plates is carried out using 160 kV x-ray machine. The digitized radiographs with a resolution of 50 μm are processed for the detection of corrosion damage in five different locations. The thickness losses due to the corrosion of the MS plate obtained by gamma scattering method are compared with those values obtained by gammatography and radiography techniques. The percentage thickness loss estimated at different positions of the corroded MS plate varies from 17.78 to 27.0, from 18.9 to 24.28, and from 18.9 to 24.28 by gamma scattering, gammatography, and radiography techniques, respectively. Overall, these results are consistent and in line with each other.

Effect of variation of strain rate on thermal and acoustic emission during tensile deformation of nuclear grade AISI type 316 stainless steel

Abstract A systematic study has been undertaken to correlate the changes in thermal and acoustic emissions during tensile deformation of AISI type 316 nuclear grade stainless steel (SS) due to variations in the strain rate. Strain rates were varied in the range 3.3 × 10-4s-1 to 1.7 × 10-2s-1. Thermal emissions were monitored using a focal plane array based thermal imaging system. For a given strain rate, the rate of increase in temperature was observed to be gradual and uniform in the work hardening zone, and to increases drastically during necking. With increasing strain rate, the temperature also increased. Based on the experimental results a constitutive equation can be modelled relating the rise in temperature to strain rate. In the case of acoustic emission (AE), the root mean square (RMS) voltage of the AE signal and cumulative counts increase with strain rate due to the increase in source activation. The peak amplitude distribution of AE hits has shown that hits with similar peak amplitude are generated for all strain rates.

Evaluation of Mammary Cancer in 7,12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-Induced Wister Rats by Asymmetrical Temperature Distribution Analysis Using Thermography: A Comparison with Serum CEA Levels and Histopathology

Animal surface temperature profile captured using infrared camera is helpful for the assessment of physiological responses associated with the regulation of body temperature. Diagnosing breast cancer in early stage itself has a greater effect on the prognosis. In this work, asymmetrical temperature distribution analysis of chemical carcinogen 7,12-dimethyl benz(a)anthracene-induced in the lower right flank region of Wistar rats (n = 6) was carried out to test the potential of thermography in diagnosing mammary cancer and tumor growth over a period of nine weeks in comparison with histopathology results as standard. Temperature difference between the tumor induced lower right and left side of flank region was significant (with P value <0.001), whereas in the abdomen and shoulder there was no significant difference in temperature between right and left sides. Percentage of asymmetrical temperature difference in the tumor induced lower flank region was 0.5 to 2%, whereas in the other regions it was <0.5%. Green pixel distribution in RGB color histogram was asymmetrical in the tumor induced lower flank region. Temperature reduction was observed in the tumor induced region after the seventh day of carcinogen induction. Asymmetrical thermogram analysis is the best method of diagnosing mammary cancer and for studying tumor development.

Correlation of infrared thermographic patterns and acoustic emission signals with tensile deformation and fracture processes

During tensile deformation, part of the mechanical work done on the specimen is transformed into heat and acoustic activity. The amount of acoustic activity and the thermal emissions depend on the test conditions and the deformation behavior of the specimen during loading. Authors have used thermography and acoustic emission (AE) simultaneously for monitoring tensile deformation in AISI type 316 SS. Tensile testing was carried out at 298 K at three different strain rates. It has been shown that the simultaneous use of these techniques can provide complementary information for characterizing the tensile deformation and fracture processes.