Phased Array Ultrasonic Measurement of Fatigue Crack Growth Profiles in Stainless Steel Pipes

Abstract

This paper reports experimental sizing of fatigue crack profiles that are initiated from artificially made circumferential starter notches in stainless steel pipes of 169mm outer diameter and 14.33mm thickness, which were subjected to cyclic bending loads in a four point bending load arrangement using two nondestractive evaluation (NDE) methods: (a) phased array ultrasonic technique and (b) alternating current potential drop technique. The crack growth estimated using the two NDE techniques were compared with the beach marks that were present in the fracture surface. A simulation study using the ray tracing method was carried out to model the ultrasonic wave propagation in the test specimen, and the results were compared with the experimental results.