SUMMARY OF THE PISC ROUND-ROBIN RESULTS ON WROUGHT AND CAST AUSTENITIC STEEL WELDMENTS .1. WROUGHT-TO-WROUGHT CAPABILITY STUDY

Within the framework of Action 4 of the third phase of the Programme f or the Inspection of Steel Components (PISC III), three capability stu dies on stainless steel welds have been conducted. The first capabilit y study used a series of six wrought-to-wrought stainless steel assemb lies that contained a number of flaws such as intergranular stress cor rosion cracks, mechancial and thermal fatigue cracks and PISC type A f laws. The second capability study used two wrought to-cast austenitic steel assemblies that contained lack of fusion flaws and PISC type A f laws. The third capability study used three cast-to-cast austenitic st eel assemblies that contained lack of fusion flaws, mechanical fatigue cracks and PISC type A flaws. In total, more than 25 teams from 10 di fferent countries participated. A lot of information was obtained on t he performance of the inspection techniques used with respect to detec tion, false calls, depth and length sizing. Different flaw categories were considered to identify those difficult to detect, Furthermore, an analysis at the level of techniques was performed which identified so me of the more effective techniques and procedures, In Part I of this work the main conclusions from the capability study on wrought to-wrou ght austenitic steel welds will be discussed, The two other capability studies are discussed in Parts II and III. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevie r Science Ltd.