Development of a twin crystal membrane coupled conformable phased array for the inspection of austenitic welds

The inspection of welded austenitic stainless steel components can be challenging. Austenitic welds contain an anisotropic, inhomogeneous grain structure which causes attenuation, scattering and beam bending. The inspection of components where the weld cap has not been removed is even more difficult due to the irregularity of the surface geometry. A twin crystal membrane coupled device has now been produced containing two linear phased arrays positioned adjacent to one another within the same housing. The arrays are angled relative to one another so that the transducer provides a pseudo-focusing effect at a depth corresponding to the beam crossing point. This type of design is used to improve the signal to noise ratio of the defect response in comparison to simple linear phased array transducer designs and to remove an internal noise signal found in linear phased array devices. Experimental results obtained from the through weld inspection of an austenitic stainless steel component with an undressed weld cap using the twin crystal membrane device are presented. These results demonstrate that small lack of side wall fusion defects can be reliably detected in large complex structures.