7TH International Conference on Nuclear Engineering

Tokyo, Japan, April 19-23, 1999

ICONE-7079

EFFECT OF ULTRASONIC SCATTERING ON INSPECTION OF

WELDS IN AUSTENITIC STEELS
Michel Bith, C. Pecorari, T. Seldis, European Commission DG JRC;
E. Neumann, BAM; P. Krarup, Force; F. Hardie, Mitsui Babcock;
E.B. Pers-Anderson, ABB TRC

ABSTRACT

There is a strong incentive to perform reliable ultrasonic inspection of austenitic

stainless steel welds to detect and classify defects which could cause weld failure.
Reliable ultrasonic inspections for such welds are mainly hampered because of
severe attenuation of the ultrasound. The sound is scattered and mode-converted at
the boundaries of the columnar grains of the austenitic weld metal.
This has several effects for evaluation of ultrasonic signals:
the amplitude of the ultrasonic echo is influenced by ultrasound scattering, phasechanges and mode-conversion in a characteristic way,
the spectrum of the ultrasonic pulse is distorted depending on the transfer
characteristics of the columnar grained weld metal,
the ultrasonic grain boundary backscatter is measured as noise decreasing the
signal-to-noise ratio during ultrasonic testing.
The required understanding of ultrasound scattering in columnar grained austenitic
stainless steel weld metal has been achieved in the frame of this study by:
theoretical modelling of ultrasound columnar grain boundary scattering and
validation of models with experiment,
metallurgical investigations of columnar grain structure,
inspection capability during defect assessment by ultrasound on welded austenitic
test pieces.
A general examination procedure for austenitic stainless steel welds on the basis of
the results is being written and be used in standards such as the currently intended
revision of the International Institute of Welding (IIW) Handbook on the Ultrasonic
Examination of Austenitic Welds and as the draft CEN standard for ultrasonic
examination of welds in austenitic steels.

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1 Introduction
Specification of codes and regulations for non-destructive inspection of austenitic
stainless steel welds with ultrasound, e. g. [1, 2], needs considering that:
ultrasound velocity and polarisation are direction dependent due to the
macroscopic elastic anisotropy of the weld metal, e. g. [3],
ultrasonic scattering is occurring due to the polycrystalline character of the
columnar grained weld metal, the ultrasound scattering being also direction
dependent because of the anisotropy.
In contrast to ultrasound velocity and polarisation, ultrasound scattering mechanisms
in polycrystalline anisotropic media are less understood.

2 Objectives and background

In order to develop a general examination procedure for austenitic welds, the ultrasound scattering mechanisms need to be better understood. This is the purpose of
the present project undertaken by BAM (also co-ordinator), Mitsui Babcock, ABBTRC, Force Institute and EC-JRC, and funded by the European Commission
Standards, Measurements & Testing (SMT) Programme.

3 Preparation of test welds and weld metal samples

Four industrially relevant material groups have been selected:

Group 1: Austenitic stainless Cr-Ni steels

Austenitic steel grades of this group are the commonly most used high alloy
steels. These steels generally contain at minimum 12% chromium to improve the
corrosion resistance. Sufficient Ni, Mn, C, and N stabilise the austenitic structure.
Austenitic stainless steels consist of an austenitic matrix, which may contain small
quantities of ferrite. The microstructure depends on the content of elements
stabilising ferrite and austenite and differs between fully austenitic and austeniticferritic. The specimen base metal is wrought stainless steel, and the welding
process is the submerged arc welding.

Group 2: Fully austenitic stainless steels with increased Ni-content

In contrast to the steels grades of group 1 the austenitic steels with increased Nicontent consist of only one metallic phase with less complicated microstructure.
The specimen base metal is centrifugally cast stainless steel, and the welding
process is the submerged arc welding.

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Group 3: Nickel-based alloys

Nickel based alloys differ from high alloy Cr-Ni steels by increased Ni content.
They get more and more the pure Ni properties, e.g. low thermal conductivity. It
may be assumed that this feature influences the grain growth by influencing the
cooling rate. Nickel based alloys are alloyed with Mo, which forms segregations of
Mo carbides and intermetallic phases.

Group 4: Duplex steels

Duplex stainless steels have a balanced ferritic-austenitic microstructure obtained
by controlled chemical analysis and heat treatment with a limited ferrite content of
40 to 60 %. The ferritic matrix of the base material contains lathy or also globular
austenitic grains. The so-called duplex structure exists also in the weld metal and
therefore columnar grain-growth as observed in austenitic materials can be
avoided.

Specimens containing test welds and weld metal samples have been prepared for:
experimental validation through attenuation measurement,
microstructure characterisation of austenitic stainless steel weld metal,
capability assessment of ultrasonic testing for austenitic welds.
The specimen manufacture is detailed in the mid-term assessment report of this SMT
project [4].

4 Microstructure of the austenitic stainless steel welds

By scanning electron microscopy, by X-ray diffraction, and by acoustic microscopy
the following facts have been determined:
columnar grains are made up of dendrites and residual interdendritic melting
areas. The same crystallographic basis vectors characterize both. This feature
can therefore be used to define a columnar grain as being an area of constant
dendritic orientation.
though the main dendritic growth orientation depends on the temperature gradient
during solidification, only a few grains within a bead are observed to have exactly
equal orientation. Growth orientations of adjacent grains in a bead can differ by
30 degrees and sometimes even more.
However there seems to be no mechanism, which controls the axe orientation
different grains in a certain direction. Rather it is more probable that during
solidification the axes of different grains distribute randomly. This enables the
weld metal to be described (macroscopically) as transversely isotropic.
Average values of columnar grain length up to 8 mm and columnar grain width up
to 2 mm have been measured.
Grains of adjacent beads are intergrown epitaxially, in a defined manner in most
cases, all three crystallographic directions being unchanged. However dendritic
configuration may be changed without changing the crystallographic orientation.
Depending on the direction of the maximum temperature gradient, the
crystallisation rate of the subsidiary dendrite branches may increase and one of
these directions may become the main branch as the preferred growth direction

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In the direction of welding the grains may be tilted up to 20 degrees (layback

angle).

Neighbouring columnar grains with different crystallographic orientations form an

acoustic boundary between them. It can be concluded that the acoustic boundaries
are predominantly responsible for ultrasonic scattering (reflection and refraction),
whereas grain boundary precipitations, segregations, polyphase weld metal only
have negligible effect.

5 Modelling of ultrasonic propagation in austenitic stainless steel weld

5.1 Ultrasonic grain scattering
To describe the microscopic process of backscattering the reflection and
transmission coefficients of plane elastic waves at the interface between cubic
columnar grains, the textured austenitic weld metal is consisting of, are calculated for
an example. It is the special case, where one of the cube axes of both columnar
grains (the columnar grain direction) always is perpendicular to the plane of sound
propagation.
Backscattering at a single grain boundary is between 5 and 10% and only at large
(wave vector) incidence angles exceeds 10%. However, it is not possible to calculate
the scattering coefficient by a simple summation of all grain boundary contributions to
backscattering, because all kinds of interactions and interferences within the
scattering structure must be taken into account.
The transfer matrix model [5] has been applied to the ultrasound propagation in a
layered structure, representing the columnar grains, yielding the reflection and
transmission coefficients.
A simple model of the cubic columnar grains of the austenitic weld metal - an
austenitic cubic plate immersed in water with one of the cube axes normal to the
plate surface - has been treated numerically. The complex transmission and
reflection coefficients (modulus and phase) have been calculated as a function of the
plane wave incidence angle and of the rotation angle of the crystallographic coordinate system about the plate surface normal. Additional parameters are the
ultrasound frequency and the plate thickness. The coefficients are only slightly
dependent of rotation angle, plate thickness and frequency, but are highly sensible to
the variation of the angle of incidence. Consideration of the energy coefficients yields
a perfect complementary behaviour of the reflection and transmission coefficient,
emphasising the fact that the total sum of reflected and transmitted energy equals the
incident energy. This confirms the concept of dealing with plane waves while the
necessity of introducing bounded beams is not given up to now.
The transfer matrix now is calculated for a system of layers with varying thickness
and varying crystallographic rotation angles from layer to layer by taking into account
the local transfer matrix of a given layer and the boundary conditions to the
neighbouring layer. Coupling this system to an upper and lower isotropic material (in
this case water) yields the general equation for the field variables and the reflection
and transmission coefficient, which is going to be solved.

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As a first cross check, perfect agreement with the results for the single plate has
been obtained, if more layers but with equal crystallographic rotation angles are
taken into account.
A second approach was undertaken: by solution of the stochastic wave equation the
scattering (attenuation) coefficient in polycrystalline austenitic weld metal, which
consists of cubic columnar grains, is achieved as the imaginary part of the
propagation constant [6].

5.2 Ultrasonic ray tracing

Three-dimensional (plane wave) beam propagation in the weld metal has been
modelled assuming that only the columnar grain boundaries are acting on ultrasound,
and validated using a series of test blocks.

6 Experimental validation of the modelling results

The theoretical model of ultrasonic wave propagation in polycrystalline materials with
texture predicts that the angular dependent longitudinal wave attenuation steadily
increases as the angle between the wave vector and the texture direction varies from
0 to 90 degrees. Up to date, however, experimental investigations found that the
attenuation of longitudinal waves having a relative maximum in the proximity of the
grain growth direction.
The experimental work focuses on this contradiction. To assure reliable longitudinal
wave attenuation measurements versus the texture direction a novel approach called
"Scanning Technique" has been developed to map the ultrasonic field of an
immersion transducer by recording the A-scans received by a hydrophone [7]. Both
the incident ultrasonic beam and the field transmitted through the plate are scanned
in raster fashion with 77 points per line and per column, respectively. The scanned
area was approximately 18 times larger than the transducer cross section, and allows
all the energy carried by the beam to be recovered. This feature of the scanning
technique makes corrections for beam diffraction and beam steering unnecessary.
Two distinct data processing procedures are applied to the maps of pressure field
data acquired during the measurements on X5 CrNi 18 11 cast austenitic steel
plates:
Simulated Finite Beam:
This procedure simulates a receiving transducer having the same area and axis
as the transmitter. To this end, all the A-scans recoreded by the hydrophone
within the surface of the simulated receiver are integrated over the transducer's
surface. The result is a single, synthesised A-scan. Subsequently, this A-scan is
Fourier transformed into the angular frequency domain and conventional data
corrections are then applied to the integrated signal.
Energy Approach:
According to this data processing procedure, each and every A-scan acquired by

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the hydrophone is Fourier transformed into the angular frequency domain. The
transformation yields a complex pressure field at discrete angular frequencies.
Then, the complex pressure field is further decomposed into a two-dimensional
spectrum of plane waves in the k-space domain. The amplitudes of the planewave components of the incident and transmitted pressure field are corrected for
the appropriate angular dependent acoustical impedance mismatches at the
water/solid/water interfaces. Finally, the energy of the incident and transmitted
field is evaluated by integrating the intensities of each component over the whole
k-space.
The following has been shown:
The longitudinal wave attenuation versus the texture direction obtained with the
simulated finite beam approach exhibits a local maximum near the grain growth
direction. The relevance of this exercise relies on the fact that the raw data
acquired by the hydrophone exhibits, after a conventional signal processing, the
same odd behaviour versus the texture direction as it was found in previous
investigations.
The longitudinal wave attenuation versus the texture direction obtained with the
energy approach does not display any relative maximum in the proximity of the
grain-growth direction. Following this approach the theoretical predictions of the
longitudinal wave attenuation versus the texture direction are recovered at least in
a qualitative sense.
The main conclusions of this part of the work are:
The energy approach suggests that interference effect between the plane-wave
components of the beam as well as inappropriate corrections for the acoustical
impedance mismatches are responsible for the observed maximum in previous
investigations.
For the first time, the predictions of the theoretical models of ultrasonic wave
propagation in polycrystalline materials with texture have been validated applying
a novel experimental approach.
In order to prepare attenuation measurements of transverse waves with electrodynamical transducers, preliminary attenuation measurements of longitudinal waves
have been performed on the specimens of Group 1, Group 3 and Group 4.
Attenuation of Group 4 weld metal (Duplex) is the same as in ferritic weld metal.
Especially, no dependency of attenuation on the beam-to-grain angle could be found.
This is not the case with both other weld metal groups. An example of measured
longitudinal wave attenuation in Group 1 material shows the relation between the
beam and the grain angle.
A set of 12 specimens cut in different depths from a X 6 Cr Ni 18 10 austenitic weld
for repeated sound field measurements under varying conditions has been
manufactured and used for sound field measurements.

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The first series of tests carried out on 6 specimens with the weld fusion face parallel
to the coupling surfaces, both with the electrodynamic and the piezoelectric probe,
show that the beam skewing, beam spreading, and distortion is low, as the shape of
the sound field patterns are revealing. They are circular as obtained with a test block
of ferritic steel.
From the preliminary investigations no hints on a scattering effect of the longitudinal
waves have been obtained yet in the area of the weld material. This could be due to
the size of the piezoelectric transducer and would probably be visible with the use of
the electrodynamic sensors where it now may be obstructed by noise especially for
the thick specimens.
In conclusion of this project part, the attenuation of the weld metal of the four steel
groups has been measured, revealing qualitatively fairly good agreement with the
theoretical predictions, which are calculated with the plane wave.
However, corrections for impedance mismatch and phase differences due to beam
divergence are necessary to get quantitative agreement with the theoretical
predictions. The attenuation of the Duplex steel is as low as the attenuation of ferritic
weld metal and no direction dependence could be observed.

7 Ultrasonic inspection capability

Manual and automated detection and sizing has been performed to assess and
compare the intrinsic capability of different ultrasonic testing techniques currently
used by the industrial partners.
Automated and manual ultrasonic inspection was carried out by the three industrial
partners on the test specimens representing the four groups of stainless steel under
investigation in this study. Capability of the ultrasonic testing was determined using
the PISC [8] type A sharp notches, which were introduced in the weld area.
Results of the Round Robin Test show that:
for flaw detection, the frequency is a very important parameter to be considered
when inspecting austenitic welds. There is a slight improvement in detection rate
when using a 1 MHz transducer rather than a 2 MHz transducer. The detection
rate improves dramatically when using a 0,5 MHz transducer instead of a 1 MHz
transducer. This was clearly demonstrated, when inspecting welds of the groups
1 and 2,
groups 3 and 4 demonstrated a better weld inspectability than groups 1 and 2.
However, the weld thickness shall also to be consider: the fact that the test
specimens in groups 3 and 4 have only about half the thickness of the test
specimens in groups 1 and 2, also influences the inspectability difference,
for inclined longidudinal wave probes, straight and tilted notches in the weld area,
with different through wall size are highly selective for probe efficiency evaluation,
there is a wide spreading of length sizing, which could also be partly due to the
progressive shape of the notch ends,

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the 3 mm side drilled holes, which were introduced in the weld, the base metal
and in the along the weld-base metal interface, are essential for conducting an
efficient ultrasonic inspection of austenitic welds.

8 Examination procedure
A proposal for a standard on ultrasonic examination of welds in austenitic steels has
been already submitted to the European standardisation bodies CEN [1].
Requirements for the examination technique to minimise ultrasonic back scattering
have been defined:
wave modes to be used,
probe techniques (piezoelectric transducer or EMAT, single, twin, or multitransducer),
frequency,
beam angles and beam scanning directions.
9 Conclusions
The intention of this project is to improve examination procedures for austenitic
stainless steel welds by better understanding of ultrasound scattering in the columnar
grained austenitic stainless steel weld metal. Consequently, the following research
works were performed:
theoretical modelling of ultrasound columnar grain boundary scattering and
validation of models with experiment,
metallurgical and acoustic microscopy investigations of columnar grain structure,
ultrasonic inspection capability on welded austenitic test pieces.
Four groups of materials comprising the full scale of industrially relevant stainless
steels were investigated: austenitic stainless Cr-Ni steels, fully austenitic stainless
steels with increased Ni-content, Nickel-base-alloys, and Duplex steels (Ferriticaustenitic steels).
Theoretical concepts have been followed to model the ultrasonic amplitude, which is
attenuated due to grain boundary scattering. Other inhomogeneities in the weld
structure, e. g. different degrees of segregations within grains and beads, or grain
boundary precipitations, only seem to play a minor role in causing ultrasound
scattering.
Validation of the theoretical models is by measuring attenuation of the ultrasonic
beam in austenitic weld metal plates. A novel approach called Scanning Technique
has been developed to measure the longitudinal wave attenuation versus the texture
direction. By applying this technique, the results show that the longitudinal wave
attenuation does not display any relative maximum in the proximity of the graingrowth direction. For the first time, the predictions of the theoretical models of
ultrasonic wave propagation in polycrystalline materials with texture have been
validated applying this novel experimental approach.

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Test specimens with reference reflectors and realistic defects in the weld area, were
prepared and inspected using various ultrasonic testing techniques. The Round
Robin Test results demonstrate the importance of the transducer frequency on the
weld inspectability.
A proposal for a standard on ultrasonic examination of welds in austenitic steels has
been already submitted to the European standardisation bodies CEN and is under
review in the corresponding Technical Committee.

Acknowledgement
This research project, referenced as Project No. SMT4-CT95-2012, is funded by the
Commission of the European Communities under the Standards, Measurements &
Testing Programme, 1996 - 1999, DG XII, Brussels.

References
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welds. Ultrasonic methods. Examination of welds in austenitic steels, March
1998, Secretariat DS, Kollegievej 6, DK-2920 Charlottenlund
[2] Handbook on the ultrasonic examination of austenitic and dissimilar welds,
Working Group `Ultrasonic Testing of Austenitic Welds' of Subcommission VC
`Ultrasonically Biased Weld Inspection Topics' of Commission V `Quality Control and
Quality Assurance of Welded Products' of the International Institute of Welding (IIW),
Draft of the second edition, March 1998
[3] Neumann, E.; Hirsekorn, S.; Huebschen, G.; Just, T.; Schmid, R.: Ultrasonic
Testing of Austenitic Claddings, Dissimilar Metal Welds, and Austenitic Welds,
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ISBN 3-8169-1078-5
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scattering on inspection of austenitic welds.
[5] Nayfeh, A. N.: Wave propagation in layered anisotropic media, Elsevier Science
B. V., Amsterdam, 1995, ISBN 0-444-89018-1
[6] Munikoti, V. K.; Neumann, E.: Extension of Ahmed & Thompson theory to general
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[8] Nichols, R. W.; Crutzen, S: Ultrasonic Inspection of Heavy Section Steel

Components, The PISC II Final Report, Elsevier Applied Science Publ. Ltd. London
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