A system for characterizing a spot weld including an acoustic probe that further includes a plurality of ultrasonic transducer elements arranged in a curved array, wherein the transducer elements are operative to generate ultrasonic signals and to receive reflections thereof; and a combination of materials for allowing the probe to conform to a contoured surface of the spot weld while enabling sound energy to be transferred directly into the spot weld under test conditions; a phased array excitation unit coupled to the array of transducer elements for ultrasonically exciting transducer elements; and a controller coupled to the phased array excitation unit for controlling the operation of the phased array unit, gathering and processing information from the ultrasonic transducers, and generating a two-dimensional, color coded image that characterizes the integrity of the spot weld

Three-dimensional matrix phased array spot weld inspection system

A portable system for non-destructively characterizing spot welds that includes at least one matrix phased array probe and a body, wherein the body is designed to be hand-held and further includes an ergonomically designed outer casing; at least one input for connecting to the at least one matrix phased array probe; ultrasonic phased array transmitting and receiving circuitry in electrical communication with the at least one input; a touch screen computer that further includes at least one data processor running software that includes at least one imaging algorithm for processing data received from the probe and generating color coded ultrasonic C-scan images of characterized welds; and at least one monitor for displaying the color coded ultrasonic C-scan images of the characterized welds in real time.

Portable matrix phased array spot-weld inspection system

The invention discloses a method for testing and identifying P92 steel weld metal microcracks. The method comprises the steps of generating the P92 steel weld metal microcracks through simulation; testing a test block with the TOFD method and recording small recognizable defects in an image; testing the small defects obtained through the TOFD method with the phase array method, and recording small defects, with length-width ratios larger than 3, in an image; dissecting the interfaces of the small defects to obtain a metallographic specimen, conducting dimensional measurement, and comparing a measurement result with the TOFD test image and the phase array test image; determining the morphology criteria for testing the P92 steel weld metal microcracks which are: a, small defects with dot characteristics and lengths smaller than 4 mm in the TOFD test image and b, small defects with length-width ratios larger than 3 in the phase array scan image; conducting field testing on P92 steel weld metal by means of the morphology criteria. By the adoption of the method, the rate of detection of microcracks in the P92 steel weld metal is increased, and potential safety hazards threatening safe operation of a unit are eliminated.

Method for testing and identifying P92 steel weld metal microcracks

The invention discloses a welding seam defect detection and quick extraction system based on an ultrasonic phased array. The welding seam defect detection and quick extraction system comprises a welding seam defect real-time detection module, an image processing module and a defect information display module. The invention also discloses a method of the welding seam defect detection and quick extraction system based on the ultrasonic phased array. The method comprises the following steps: moving the welding seam defect real-time detection module in the direction parallel to the welding seam direction at constant speed through an ultrasonic phased array probe in a detection process, receiving an image formed by a defect echo signal in a friction stir-welding seam of an aluminum alloy vehicle body in real time, and transmitting the image to the image processing module; receiving the image from the welding seam defect real-time detection module by the image processing module and extracting the size and position information of the defects in real time, performing depth location and quantitative analysis on the aluminum alloy friction stir-welding defects to obtain signal characteristicvalues and signal rulers, and transmitting the signal characteristic values and the signal rulers to the defect information display module; receiving the signal characteristic values and the signal rulers from the image processing module by the defect information display module and performing calibration to obtain the depths of the defects and the sizes of the defects.

Welding seam defect detection and quick extraction system based on ultrasonic phased array and method

The invention discloses a method for calculating a material crack tip stress field coefficient on the basis of a weak form quadrature element method The method comprises the following steps: 1) according to a piecewise generalized variational principle, dividing a crack-contained area into a potential energy area, a complementary energy area and a boundary thereof, and establishing a piecewise generalized variational equation; 2) establishing the potential energy of the potential energy area, the complementary energy of the complementary energy area and the expressions of mixed powder on a boundary of the potential energy area and the complementary energy area, and carrying out discrete approximation on numerical integration and differential in the expressions by the weak form quadrature element method; and 3) applying a variational stationary value condition to obtain an algebraic equation set which contains the stress field coefficient, and directly obtaining the stress field coefficient through the solving of the algebraic equation set The method has the advantages that a calculation and deduction process is direct and simple, the singularity of a crack tip does not need to be subjected to special processing, and calculation precision is improved through that the amount of the internal nodes of a unit is increased so as to effectively reduce a unit division amount

Method for calculating material crack tip stress field coefficient on basis of weak form quadrature element method

A method of detecting and determining the size of fatigue cracks in steel components comprising: analyzing the component using a Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) ultrasonic technique to locate the crack tip; analyzing the component using a Phased Array Sectorial (PAS) ultrasonic technique to locate the crack corner trap; and calculating the distance between the crack tip and the crack corner trap to determine the size of the crack.

Wilmer-Jose Bustillos

Papers

A method of locating and sizing fatigue cracks