CURRENT IN-SERVICE INSPECTIONS OF AUSTENITIC STAINLESS-STEEL AND DISSIMILAR METAL WELDS IN LIGHT-WATER NUCLEAR-POWER-PLANTS

A tendency towards growing requirements for the inspection of austenit ic piping can be observed in several countries. In Germany the revised KTA rule demands the UT inspection of austenitic and dissimilar metal welds in piping with diameters of 200 mm or more. On the basis of exp erience gained from austenitic piping with integranular stress corrosi on cracking (IGSCC), longitudinal waves and mode conversion techniques are used. Depending on the geometry, material and grain orientation, spurious signals can be observed which require additional evaluation o r analysis measurements. A promising new technique is based on horizon tally polarized shear (SH) waves generated by electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs). Investigations in the laboratory and field inspe ctions showed that SH waves are well suited for the detection of longi tudinal flaws, especially where the weld can be examined from one side only. For the complete solution of a given inspection problem SH wave s can be combined with well-known standard techniques in order to prov ide redundant information for the characterization and sizing of indic ations. The investigation of possibilities of SH waves showed that the problem of cast austenitic steel inspection might not be solved using this technique. However, measurements using low frequency UT transduc ers showed promising results.