Ultrasonic testing of thick walled austenitic welds: Modelling and experimental verification

The testing of austenitic welds is difficult due to the elastically anisotropic properties of the weld grains. Therefore the normal rules for the selection of testing conditions as appropriate wave modes, frequencies and incident angles cannot be applied in the usual way. In last years several tools for simulation of the wave propagation in such testing situations were developed. In the paper these tools are applied to a austenitic weld containing a crack grown by intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC). It is demonstrated that by the combined application of several simulation tools a stepwise narrowing of the parameter space can be achieved. Eventually an optimized testing configuration is defined. The approach is validated experimentally.