Iikka Virkkunen

Advanced flaw production method for in-service inspection qualification mock-ups

One of the key issues in in-service inspection qualification is the representativeness of the defects used in qualification specimens. The best representativeness is achieved with realistic defects. However, present specimen production techniques have some significant weaknesses, such as unrealistic defects or additional alterations induced in the surrounding material. Specimens manufactured, for example, by weld implantation or with weld solidification defects always result in one or more extra weld interfaces. These interfaces can be detected by NDT. To overcome problems with the current specimens, a new defect manufacturing technique was developed. The new technique produces natural, representative defects without introducing additional weld metal or other unwanted alterations to the specimen. The new method enables artificial production of single, separate fatigue cracks by thermal loading. The method is based on a natural thermal fatigue damage mechanism and enables production of real cracks directly into the samples. Cracks are produced without welding or machining and without any preliminary surface treatment or artificial initiator such as a notch or a precrack. Single crack or a network of cracks can be induced into the base material, welded areas, HAZ, weld claddings, threaded areas, T-joints, etc. The location, orientation and size of produced cracks can be accurately controlled. Produced cracks can be used to simulate different types of service-induced cracks such as thermal fatigue, mechanical fatigue and stress corrosion cracks. It is shown that artificially produced thermal fatigue cracks correspond well with the real, service-induced cracks and overcome the problems of traditional qualification specimen manufacturing techniques.

Effect of Thermal Stresses Along Crack Surface on Ultrasonic Response

Artificial flaws can be manufactured by controlled thermal fatigue loading. The produced cracks can be introduced to a wide variety of materials. This technology gives also a unique opportunity to monitor the ultrasonic response of a crack during thermal loading. This paper reports studies on the effects of different thermal load cycles on the ultrasonic response. The loads are analyzed with FEM. Two cracked samples were loaded with different thermal load cycles.

ADVANCED FLAW MANUFACTURING AND CRACK GROWTH CONTROL

Advanced artificial flaw manufacturing method has become available. The method produces true fatigue cracks, which are representative of most service‐induced cracks. These cracks can be used to simulate behaviour of realistic cracks under service conditions. This paper introduces studies of the effects of different thermal loading cycles to crack opening and residual stress state as seen at the surface of the sample and in the ultrasonic signal. In‐situ measurements were performed under dynamic thermal fatigue loading of a 20 mm long artificial crack.

Hydrogen-induced delayed cracking in TRIP-aided lean-alloyed ferritic-austenitic stainless steels

Susceptibility of three lean-alloyed ferritic-austenitic stainless steels to hydrogen-induced delayed cracking was examined, concentrating on internal hydrogen contained in the materials after production operations. The aim was to study the role of strain-induced austenite to martensite transformation in the delayed cracking susceptibility. According to the conducted deep drawing tests and constant load tensile testing, the studied materials seem not to be particularly susceptible to delayed cracking. Delayed cracks were only occasionally initiated in two of the materials at high local stress levels. However, if a delayed crack initiated in a highly stressed location, strain-induced martensite transformation decreased the crack arrest tendency of the austenite phase in a duplex microstructure. According to electron microscopy examination and electron backscattering diffraction analysis, the fracture mode was predominantly cleavage, and cracks propagated along the body-centered cubic (BCC) phases ferrite and α’-martensite. The BCC crystal structure enables fast diffusion of hydrogen to the crack tip area. No delayed cracking was observed in the stainless steel that had high austenite stability. Thus, it can be concluded that the presence of α’-martensite increases the hydrogen-induced cracking susceptibility.

New Flaws for Qualification of Cast Stainless Steel Inspection

For decades, cast austenitic stainless steels (CASS) have presented a challenge for inspection. However, recent advanced inspection technologies have shown promise in inspecting CASS materials with wall thicknesses that were once considered impossible.Before being applied on larger scale, these new inspection methods must be proven to be effective at identifying discontinuities in CASS material. This presents a problem of its own. Several traditional flaw manufacturing methods cannot be applied to CASS due to the disruption of the parent material. Excavation and welding changes the cast material microstructure and thus significantly affects the inspection results. At the same time, due to the significant wall thickness and inspection limitations, the required qualification flaws can be quite large. Until recently, modern flaw manufacturing techniques, that do not require welding, have not been applied to flaws of this size.In this paper, recent developments will be presented on the manufacturing of thermal fatigue cracks in centrifically CASS material. The presented developments make it possible to use real cracks for demonstrating the effectiveness of CASS inspection techniques.The results also contain first published UT data on this kind of thermal fatigue cracks in CASS and reveal new insight on the inspectability of this difficult material.Copyright

Effect of Stress on Ultrasonic Response in Detection and Sizing of Cracks

Abstract In different NDT techniques huge developments have been achieved during the last few years with regard to crack detection and sizing. In a large range of materials, cracks are one of the most dangerous defect types. A crack is a planar reflector, which is sometimes extremely difficult to detect and to be sized. A crack can be totally open, partly closed or even totally closed because of compressive stresses. The effects of stresses cause problems, for instance, in in-service inspections of nuclear power plants in detection and sizing of closed cracks. This phenomenon causes similar effects in all kinds of plants and components. In this study some experimental inspections have been carried out as well as some FEM calculations of stress field around the crack and compared to corresponding measurements in literature. Materials used for this study are austenitic and ferritic piping steel. The dynamic load applied to the cracks was in form of different thermal cycles. The maximum temperature variations were from 20°C to 600°C depending on each dynamic loading cycle. Different types of ultrasonic methods were used in the measurements. The effect of closure on the response of normal ultrasonic practical probes was recorded. Dynamic loading during ultrasonic measurement gives clear evidence on the effect of the crack closure as well as on the amplitude variation limits in ultrasonic testing.