The study of ultrasonic wave propagation in welded austenitic stainless steel

Abstract

The propagation of ultrasonic waves in welded austenitic stainless steel (304 SS) is examined. Significant variations of welded samples have been observed for different wave propagation directions. The welded samples for UT inspection are; welded sample with flatten on surface, welded sample with artificial defect at bottom and flatten on top surface, welded sample with artificial defect at bottom, and sample without weld. The effect of microstructures on flaw detection in austenitic stainless steel welds is discussed and examples are given. The current work is compared with recent literature on this subject. All the factors that influenced the travel of wave propagation in material can be predicted. Analysis of data also has been acquired from artificial defect of stainless steel welds and used to describe the weld metal influences. The coarse grained columnar crystals in the weld of the austenitic stainless steel leads to disturbance with grasses echoes and significant attenuation by scattering in evaluation of flaw echoes. Grain boundary scattering, mode conversion, and the phenomenon of beam steering are the main factors that influenced the false measurement in UT of austenitic stainless steel weld metal.