Feasibility of evaluating the integrity of FTR duct to end fixture welds using acoustic emission monitoring

A method of applying real-time acoustic emission (AE) source location to evaluate the integrity of duct-to-end fixture welds was developed and evaluated using the HEDL R8-4 AE monitor coupled with a PDP-8e minicomputer. Operational software was developed to control the system's data acquisition, storage, and display functions. Performance was evaluated on the basis of comparisons between AE source location data and subsequent destructive examination of six duct-to-transition ring qualification welds. Ten separate discontinuities seen in the metallography performed at 35 locations along these welds correlated with the averaged acoustic emission activity revealed by the AE source location maps. This relationship is not presently considered to be usable as a system calibration method however, because of the limited range of discontinuity lengths (from 0.0003 to 0.004 in. long) that were correlated. The presence of six other discontinuities, found in regions showing low levels of emission activity, indicated that significant stress risers can go undetected under the conditions investigated