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RADIOGRAPHY OF THIN SECTION

WELDS: PART 1 PRACTICAL
APPROACH

  

Radiography of Thin Section Welds, Part 1: Practical

Approach

G A Georgiou

Jacobi Consulting Ltd

London N1 3NL, UK

Telephone 020 7288 1601

Fax 0870 054 7372

E-mail george@jacobiconsulting.co.uk

C R A Schneider

TWI

Cambridge CB1 6AL, UK

Paper presented at BINDT Annual Conference 2002, Southport, UK, 17 Sept. 2002

Abstract

This paper describes some recent work on the capability of radiography to detect planar

defects in thin section welds (thickness range 10-51mm). The paper concentrates on the

practical aspects of the work, including the manufacture of defect specimens, the procedures

used for X-ray and gamma radiography, the independent interpretations of the radiographs,

the sectioning of the defect specimens and the practical analysis of the results. A separate

paper at this conference (Part 2) concentrates on the theoretical modelling and statistical

analysis aimed at predicting radiographic capability for planar defects in thin welds.

The practical analysis here is based on 13 realistic planar defects revealed by sectioning. Each

of these 13 defects has a number of radiographic exposures associated with it (i.e. di erent

set up, such as beam angle, lm to focus distance, specimen thickness etc), making a total of

284 defect/radiograph combinations. One of the 13 defects was considered too complex and

inappropriate for theoretical modelling (Part 2) and was left out of that analysis.

Speci c conclusions are discussed in this paper, but overall the results for defect detectability

support the expected trends that increasing penetrated thickness, increasing misorientation

angle and decreasing typical gape all contribute to making defect detection more di cult.

1. Introduction

During 1995-1999, TWI performed several detailed studies on the radiography of large planar

defects in thick-section welds. [1] The work considered a number of issues, such as the

capability of 1950s and 1960s radiography, the use of statistical models to predict defect

detectability and the e ect of human factors on defect detectability. The thicknesses studied

were in the range 50-114mm. The main application of the work was to quantify the capability

of the construction radiography performed on the welds of the Magnox steel reactor
pressure vessels, but the work also had generic value in providing a better understanding of

radiographic capability. The studies also con rmed that the Pollitt model was a valuable tool

for predicting the detectability of planar defects in thick welds.

This current work extends the original programme to look at the detectability of planar

defects in thinner section welds (thickness range 10-51mm). Both X-ray and gamma

radiography was used. This new work, while intended for speci c applications in the nuclear

power industry, should also be of generic value in improving the understanding of

radiographic capability as well as evaluating Pollitt modelling for thin weld radiography. The

Pollitt model is considered in a separate paper in these proceedings. [2]

2. Specimen and defect manufacture

Three defect specimens were manufactured at TWI and were intended to contain 12 realistic

planar defects with through wall extent (TWE) in the range 2mm to 5mm and nominal lengths

of 10mm. The intended defect types included lack of sidewall fusion, centreline solidi cation

cracking and HAZ hydrogen cracking. The methods used to produce these defects are well

established at TWI, although not without di culties and perhaps more so with such relatively

small intended defect sizes. In some cases more than one attempt was necessary to produce

the desired defect type and the sectioning programme revealed a total of 21 defects. Out of

these 21 defects, 13 planar defects were selected for analysis ( Table 1).

Table 1 A summary of the nal defect parameters for the 13 defects selected for analysis.
 Defect Thickness TWE Tilt Typical Gape Max. Gape
Type
ID (mm) (mm) (deg.)* (mm) (mm)

W1-1A 10 0.8 7° 0.05 0.11 Lack of root fusion

W3-2A 17 3.1 -23° 0.02 0.04 Lack of fusion

W3-3A 17 1.8 15° 0.03 0.15 Lack of fusion

W3-4A 17 2.9 35° 0.001 0.1 Lack of fusion

W3-5A 17 2.9 -26° 0.02 0.06 Lack of fusion

W3-6A 17 2.5 25° 0.02 0.04 Lack of fusion

W3-8A 17 2.4 32° 0.01 0.07 Lack of fusion

W5-1B 38 2.5 -31° 0.04 0.08 Hydrogen cracking

W5-1C 38 2.5 24° 0.001 0.2 Hydrogen cracking

W5-1D 38 1.5 -28° 0.001 0.001 Hydrogen cracking

W5-2B 38 1.5 -34° 0.003 0.012 Hydrogen cracking

W5-2C 38 0.7 16° 0.01 0.09 Hydrogen cracking

W5-4A 38 7.9 -5° 0.01 0.09 Hydrogen cracking

Key: *Defect tilt is measured positive anticlockwise

The sectioning programme revealed TWEs measuring about 1mm to 8mm. The lengths of the

defects, as determined by NDT, were in the region of 7mm to 15mm. However, the lengths

were never veri ed as sectioning was generally only carried out at one position along the

length of each defect. Overall, the manufacturing methods used for the intended defect

specimens were successful in producing defect types with the intended TWE and lengths.

However, there were no solidi cation cracks among the 13 planar defects selected, and the

TWEs were generally rather smaller than intended, notwithstanding the range mentioned

above. The three specimens were 10mm (ferritic), 17mm (austenitic) and 38mm(ferritic) thick

respectively ( Table 1).

3. Summary of the radiography programme

Since only three specimens were manufactured, spacer plates were used to simulate

di erent thicknesses between 10mm and 51mm. When spacer plates were used the majority

(69%) was placed on the source side, but a substantial proportion (31%) was placed closest to

the lm. This was to simulate the e ect of defects being at di erent depths within the welds.

The radiographic procedures used were largely based on Class B techniques (i.e. improved) in

the current European standard, BS EN 1435, [3] with class B lms (Fuji 80 or Fuji 100). It was

decided at the outset to assess the radiographic performance using the 'minimum

requirements' of this quality class, that is, using the minimum allowed focus- or source-to- lm

distances (FFD/SFD) and the highest allowed kV. This of course does not necessarily represent

day-to-day practice, but represents the minimum performance that should be achieved in

practice. However, whilst the majority of radiographs were taken using 'minimum

requirements', a number were also taken using more favourable radiographic settings to

provide a comparison.

A single-wall technique was used throughout with the Image Quality Indicators (IQI) always

placed on the source side.

A total of 144 radiographic exposures were de ned and taken using X-Ray (70% of the total)

and Gamma (30% of the total) using both Iridium 192 and Selenium 75.

4. Results, analysis and conclusions

Two independent interpreters were chosen with suitable industrial quali cations (i.e. PCN

level 2) and who had no involvement in any of the radiography programme.

A great deal of e ort went into the mounting and masking of the radiographs ( Figure 1) in

order to minimise the risk of the interpreters learning the locations of defects on the

di erent specimens and realising that there were only 3 specimens. Further e ort went into
organising the order of the radiographs so that each interpreter received more challenging

radiographs rst in order to minimise the risk of the interpreter learning the defect locations

from the easier exposures and then using this knowledge to help with the more challenging

exposures.

Fig. 1. An illustration of a mounted radiograph and information supplied

4.1 Comparison of Interpreters: Achieving IQI sensitivity levels

An analysis of the interpreters' report forms show that each interpreter reported at least

Class A IQI sensitivity level [3] in nearly all cases. Moreover, for a substantial proportion of the

cases, each interpreter was reporting at least Class B IQI sensitivity level (40% for interpreter X

and 67% for interpreter Y). These results re ect the fact that interpreter Y was recording

more IQI wires than interpreter X.

4.2 Comparison of interpreters: Overall detection of defects

From the 144 mounted radiographs viewed by each interpreter, the actual positions of the 13

defects selected were in the viewing window a total of 284 times. Each interpreter was asked

to record indications as either easily visible(EV), barely visible (BV), based on a sample

radiograph with notches, or not detected (ND). Interpreter Y detected more defects than

interpreter X, by a margin of 4%. For this analysis, the number of detected defects recorded

was with respect to actual defect positions, so this was not just a case of an interpreter simply

recording more defects because of human behaviour. The higher detection level of

Interpreter Y was consistent with reporting a higher average IQI sensitivity level (see above).

4.3 Comparison of defect detection at di erent FFD/SFD

Whilst the vast majority of radiographic exposures were taken at the minimum FFD/SFD

settings (i.e. 350mm to 760mm), some were repeated at longer FFD/SFD (i.e. 1000mm) to

assess the di erence in radiographic performance.

When all reported indications on the radiographs were considered there were about 10%

fewer indications reported by each interpreter using minimum FFD/SFD compared with

longer FFD/SFD settings. However, if the analysis was con ned to the 13 selected planar

defects there appeared to be only very slightly fewer of these reported at minimum FFD/SFD

than at longer FFD/SFD.

4.4 Comparison of defect detection between X-Ray and Gamma

When taking all reported indications into account, each interpreter reported substantially

more indications (between 30% and 40%) for X-ray radiography than for gamma radiography.

This was consistent with more IQI wires being reported for X-ray than for gamma.

However, if the analysis was con ned to the 13 selected planar defects, the interpreters

reported only marginally more of these using X-ray radiography than when using gamma

radiography, but there were also a few speci c cases where the opposite was observed.

4.5 Comparison of defect detection for di erent defect positions

Spacer plates were used to simulate di erent defect positions through the specimen

thickness. This change of defect position would also change the geometric unsharpness for

each defect.

To simplify the comparison, only the corresponding normal incidence radiographs were

selected. When all the reported indications were taken into account, slightly more indications

were reported when the spacer plates were closest to the source (i.e. lower geometric

unsharpness) as might be expected. However, there were also a few indications reported with
the spacer plates closest to the lm (i.e. higher geometric unsharpness) that were not

reported with the spacer plates closest to the source.

When the analyses were con ned to the 13 selected planar defects, the defect detection

results showed there was hardly any di erence between the two geometric set-ups.

4.6 Defect detection as a function of other parameters

Other parameters such as penetrated thickness, the presence of the weld cap, the defect

TWE, the misorientation angle and the typical gape were considered for their in uence on

defect detectability. The parameters were considered both singly and in pairs, as it is

impossible to show all the relevant parameters in this way on just one graph.

The results, in general, support the expected trends that increasing penetrated thickness,

increasing misorientation angle and decreasing typical gape all contribute to making defect

detection more di cult. This is consistent with similar trends observed in the earlier thick-

section weld study. [4]

4.7 Comparison of radiographic NDT and sectioning

Overall, the sectioning programme revealed defects at each of the sectioning positions as

determined by radiographic NDT (see Figure 2 for example), except for a couple of cases In

many cases the lengths, TWEs and orientations were also in good agreement.

Fig. 2. A photograph of defect W3-6A (cf. Table 1) revealed by sectioning and detected by
radiography
Some particular problems were encountered with the 38mm specimen, where the parent

material contained a number of small inclusions, which caused some di culties with

radiographic interpretation (see Figure 3 for example).

Fig. 3. A photograph of defect W5-2C (cf. Table 1) revealed by sectioning and detected by
radiography

4.8 Realism of manufactured defects

The methods used by TWI for manufacturing and promoting realistic defects have been well

established, but in some cases the methods used were di cult to control precisely. In this

work the problems were made more di cult becauserelatively small defects were required.

The gape values for the 13 selected planar defects were compared with the comprehensive

database of Oxford. [5] However, in making comparisons it was important to note that in the

current work gape values were provided at only one slice position. In addition, only three

gape measurements were provided (i.e. at the top, middle and bottomof the defect) as well as

the maximum gape value. From these values a judgement was made as to the typical gape

value (i.e. average gape).

In order to assess the realism of defects in the specimens here, the graphs of typical gape

values vs. TWE, provided by Oxford, [5] were reproduced for lack of fusion and hydrogen

cracking in the heat a ected zone (HAZ). The typical gape value and maximum gape value for

each of the 13 selected defects were added to the Oxford graphs.

The TWI defects show a reasonable overlap with the Oxford data, considering the limitations

of the sectioning data for the TWI defects. There are however, some instances where the

typical gape values from this study were relativelyvery small (e.g. typical gapes of the order 1

(m to 3µm) compared to gapes for similar TWE values in the Oxford data.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Dr R K Chapman and Mr G S Woodcock of British Energy plc for their

support. The paper is published by permission of the Industry Management Committee (IMC)

of the nuclear licensees, who also funded the work. The IMCcomprises members of British

Nuclear Fuels Ltd and British Energy plc.

References
1. R K Chapman, G S Woodcock, I J Munns, C R A Schneider, G A Georgiou and A B
Wooldridge, 'Recent experimental studies on radiographic capability on thick-
section welds', BINDT 1999 Conference proceedings.

2. C R A Schneider and G A Georgiou, 'Radiography of Thin Section Welds, Part 2:

Modelling'. These proceedings.

3. BS EN 1435: 1997, Non-destructive examination of welds - Radiographic

examination of welded joints.

4. Munns I J and Georgiou G A: 'The feasibility of 1950s/1960s radiography in thick

section welds'. TWI report no. 621491/1/97.

5. Oxford C H: 'A review of the occurrence and morphology of potential planar

defects in Magnox steel reactor pressure vessel submerged arc butt weldments'.
TE/GEN/REP/0059/97, Issue 1.

Radiography of thin-section welds, Part 2: Modelling

 For more information please email:

contactus@twi.co.uk

Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge, CB21 6AL, UK

+44(0)1223 899000

contactus@twi.co.uk

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