Application of ultrasonic testing techniques on austenitic welds for fabrication and inservice inspection

The author who belongs to a manufacturer of components for nuclear power plants, describes the difficulties related to ultrasonic testing of austenitic welds and parent metals, and discusses some characteristics and properties of austenitic materials and welded joints. He discusses several aspects of testing austenitic welds during fabrication of a component: variety of austenitic welds, reference blocks, advanced ultrasonic testing techniques, development of testing technique, spurious indications, and test results obtained by special probes (angle probes with longitudinal waves). He discusses the principle for in-service inspection, the particular case of identification of intergranular stress corrosion cracking (IGSCC), and the case of thick wall cast components