Phased array ultrasonic testing of dissimilar metal welds using geometric based referencing delay law technique

Phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) techniques are widely used for the non-destructive testing (NDT) of austenitic welds to find defects like cracks. However, the propagation of ultrasound waves through the austenitic material is intricate due to its inhomogeneous and anisotropic nature. Such a characteristic leads beam path distorted which causes the signal to be misinterpreted. By employing a reference block which was cutout from the mockup of which the structure is a dissimilar metal weld (DMW), a new method of PAUT named as Referencing Delay Law Technique (RDLT) has been introduced. With the RDLT, full matrix capture (FMC) was used for data acquisition. To reconstruct the images, total focusing method (TFM) was used. After the focal laws were calculated, PAUT was then performed. As a result, the flaws are more precisely positioned with significantly increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).