Benoit Lepage

Phased array ultrasonic inspection method for homogeneous tube inspection over a wide oblique angle range

As seamless tube manufacturers push quality requirements for their products, automated phased array Rotating Tube Inspection Systems (RTIS) are now required to provide continuous NDE detection performances over a wide angular range of oblique flaws. One major impact of this new reality is a paradigm shift for the calibration method use. This change is driven by the requirement to meet homogeneous detection over broad oblique flaw angle intervals, whereas standard practice only requires calibration at specific discrete angles. This paper presents an innovative method specifically designed to obtain high productivity and homogeneous inspection measurements over an oblique flaw range extending from −45 to 45 degrees. Experimental results from the application of the method on various tubes presenting multiple artificial flaws support the quantitative performance evaluation.