TIP 0402-31

ISSUED – 2002
REVISED – 2006
©2006 TAPPI

The information and data contained in this document were

prepared by a technical committee of the Association. The
committee and the Association assume no liability or responsibility
in connection with the use of such information or data, including
but not limited to any liability under patent, copyright, or trade
secret laws. The user is responsible for determining that this
document is the most recent edition published.

Guideline for evaluating quality of boiler tube butt

welds with ultrasonic testing

Scope and purpose

This document is intended to provide technical guidance to mills and providers of ultrasonic testing (UT) of
welds in tubes in recovery and power boilers. UT of welds is done to find flaws that could cause a weld-related
leak. Weld quality criteria must be defined by the mill.

A supplementary goal of the document is to encourage use of UT in appropriate circumstances.

This document applies to welds in tubes less than 4-in. OD and wall thickness less than 0.5 in. This TIP also
can be used for UT of welds in small diameter piping. Tubes can be carbon steel, stainless steel or any
combination thereof, including composite (layered) tubes.

This document describes procedures and requirements to qualify equipment and technicians for this type of UT.

When using this procedure, the mill should:

1. Define the weld quality acceptance criteria.
2. Provide physical standards for technician skill testing and equipment calibration. (Arrangements
are usually made for the NDT contractor to provide a calibration standard.)
3. Verify the UT technician’s skill and competency prior to field testing of welds.

Safety precautions

No special personnel safety precautions are required for doing tasks directly described in this TIP. Follow mill
safety procedures for work in and around recovery and power boilers.

Why the UT method is acceptable

There is no ASME Code requirement for inspecting welds in this range of tube dimensions. The intent of UT is
to find flaws that may lead to leaks or undermine the weld’s strength, such as cracks, inclusions, voids, etc.
Acceptance criteria for weld quality and action resulting from non-conformance must be specified by the mill.

BLRBAC accepts UT of tube butt weld quality as equivalent to radiographic testing (RT) – see Reference 1.
Section I of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code requires UT of butt welds in lieu of RT when RT
cannot meet certain geometric unsharpness limits. ASME Code Case 2235, Use of Ultrasonic Examination in
Lieu of Radiography, describes application of UT for examination of welds. – see Reference 2.

TIP Category: Data and Calculations

TAPPI
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tube butt welds with ultrasonic testing

Quality of tube butt welds is generally defined by Section I, Power Boilers, ASME Code, part PW. Part PW-52,
lists “acceptance standards for ultrasonic examination” of circumferential welds in tubes, pipes and headers.
A table in PW-35 is helpful in setting acceptability criteria for excessive weld reinforcement inside the tube,
(“push through”) - a contributing factor to tube failure due to flow disruption, especially in floor tubes.

Practical considerations
• Differences in UT and RT technologies give them different sensitivities for detecting flaws in welds. UT is
less likely than RT to detect rounded features like pores but UT is more likely to find planar flaws like lack
of fusion or inadequate penetration. RT is more likely to find planar flaws aligned with the radiation beam.
Because of this, acceptance criteria for RT and UT should be explicitly defined and may differ.
• UT results generated as described in this document are not presented in a permanent image format. UT
basically detects each flaw independently and relies on the UT technician’s skill to instantly interpret its
significance and record its size and location.
• Probe manipulation requirements can hinder UT of butt welds at tube tangent points on membrane panel
walls, depending on tube spacing and technician access. Inspecting the weld at the tube tangent point also
is a concern with the elliptical RT technique. (See Reference 3)
• UT of tube welds does not require worker evacuation (it can be done with the welder present) and results
are instantly available as testing is performed. By contrast, RT radiation safety standards normally require
worker evacuation in a sizeable zone around any exposed source – “safety zone” size depends on the
strength of the radiation source and radiation shielding from structures and equipment. It typically takes at
a few hours to set up for and obtain RT images, excluding time for processing and reading the film.

Recommended testing protocols

A process for gaining practical benefits of UT and obtaining some RT images is to use UT as a “screening test”.
This involves doing UT to select for subsequent RT welds that do not pass the UT test. Butt welds are first
visually inspected (VT), then tested using UT. Locations of flaws detected with UT should be clearly marked
on the tube and an accompanying diagram to optimize follow-up RT.

Two testing protocols are available, at the mill’s discretion, after detecting flaws with UT.
A. Change to RT: The need for repair and final weld quality can be based solely on RT acceptance criteria.
Resulting radiographs are permanent film images of welds that did not meet the UT acceptance criteria
and are either accepted per RT criteria or are repaired and radiographically tested at least once more.
B. Stick with UT: Repairs can be re-inspected with UT where the repair was made until they pass UT
acceptance criteria. Problematic weld repair can be facilitated with RT. Welds that must be repaired
more than twice to pass UT testing should be replaced (even though this adds another butt weld).

Figure 1 shows these alternative paths, starting with a weld that passes VT and including a defect repair.
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tube butt welds with ultrasonic testing

Figure 1. Protocol A. - “Change to RT” is on the left. Protocol B. - “Stick with UT” is on the right.

Equipment

An ultrasonic flaw detector with CRT presentation is normally used, although more specialized equipment may
be offered by the inspection company. The equipment setup should be calibrated to ASME Section V, Article 4
and capable of separating, on the screen, the top and bottom surface calibration reflectors.

A 0.25-in. (6.35-mm) diam. transducer with 5.0 MHz frequency is appropriate.

Thin walls of boiler tubes are compensated for by using an ultrasonic wedge or shoe that produces an angled
incident beam, normally 70°. Shoes should have a short exit point and be shaped to match the tube curvature.

Test qualification and calibration standards

Technique and standards for shearwave UT of tube butt welds should follow ASME Section V, Article 4.
Manual UT of tube butt welds requires an experienced technician with demonstrated skill. Technician skill
should be qualified on representative standards with known flaws.

Testing standards are the first step in developing a procedure for UT inspection and are essential for testing or
qualifying equipment, personnel and procedures. Testing standards should be developed consisting of butt
welds in tubes of the same material, diameter and wall thickness expected during the examination. Synthetic
flaws in testing standards test the technician’s competence using the written UT procedure to reliably detect and
evaluate the flaws. Tube test standards also can be made from welds with unacceptable RT indications,
especially those generated in tubes used for welder qualification by RT.

A “calibration standard” is used to calibrate the equipment in such a manner that the inspection can be
performed successfully on the applicable test standard by qualified technicians. It is recommended to make
calibration standards from an actual boiler tube, sectioned lengthwise in half. A circumferential (cross-cut)
notch and an axial notch, 0.10t deep, should be made in the external and internal surfaces, offset so as not to
overlap. A 0.10-in. (2.54-mm) diam., 0.5t deep, blind-drilled hole should also be located in the weld. The
internal surface of the butt weld should incorporate examples of both satisfactory and excessive weld
reinforcement.

In all cases, test standards for qualification and equipment calibration must be designed with flaws that
adequately simulate the mill’s weld quality requirements. Standards for UT technician qualification and
calibration standards should be kept in good condition and used for their intended purpose only.
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tube butt welds with ultrasonic testing

Surface preparation

Surfaces on which the transducer will slide adjacent to the weld should be free of scale, rust, weld splatter, arc
strikes and material that interferes with free sliding movement of the transducer or impairs the transmission of
ultrasound. Paint is normally removed but this is not always essential.

The weld area should be below 90°C (195°F) for UT examination. Guidance on couplants is provided in
Section V, Article 4, T-433, Couplant.

Technician certification

Because reliable UT depends greatly on technician skill, proper qualification of technicians is essential. To
begin, technicians should be Certified Level II or Level III in UT, per ASNT SNT-TC-1A or CP-189.

The mill should qualify the UT technician(s) before the technician does any UT by requiring practical
demonstration of individual skill using the mill’s calibration and test standards, prepared as discussed above.

Recommended test procedure

1. Use straight-beam UT to verify tube thickness on both sides of the weld and to ensure the weld area is
free of laminations or other conditions that can adversely affect the UT examination.
2. Verify that the probe can be manipulated close enough to the weld to inspect the weld root at the ½
skip distance, with the sound beam perpendicular to the weld. If this cannot be done, the procedure
should be calibrated with 1½ skips.
3. Establish and mark a “0 degree” reference position on the tube.
4. Overlap scanning traverses by at least 25%. Scanning speed should not exceed 3 in. (76.2 mm)/s.
5. All amplitude peaks above the established reference level will be noted and the length of the flaw
producing the peak measured and marked on the tube.
6. Evaluate indications that produce signal peaks with amplitude above the reference level limit, using the
acceptance criteria specified in the procedure. (Information from follow-up RT of welds rejected by
UT can be used to improve UT acceptance criteria for linear flaw indications.)

References

1. Black Liquor Recovery Boiler Advisory Committee (BLRBAC) - Recommended Guidelines for
personnel Safety, Black Liquor Recovery Boilers, Section 3.2 (www.blrbac.org)
2. ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code: Section I, Parts PW-34, PW-35, PW-41 and PW-52, and
Sect. V, Article 4 (www.asme.org)
3. TAPPI TIP 0402-33, Guideline for obtaining high quality radiographic testing (RT) of butt welds in
boiler tubes. TAPPI Press, Atlanta, GA (Last issued 2006) (www.tappi.org)
4. Amer. Soc. for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Recommended Practice SNT-TC-1A or CP-189
(www.asnt.org)
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tube butt welds with ultrasonic testing

Keywords

Boilers, Boiler tubes, Nondestructive tests, Ultrasonic tests, Welding, Butt joints, Butt welds

Additional information

Effective Date of Issue: February 28, 2006

Working Group Members:

David Bennett, Chairman – Corrosion Probe, Inc.

Dennis Beggs – Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.
Max Moskal – M&M Engineering
David Parrish – FM Global
Craig Reid – Acuren Group, Inc.

Charles Guzi’s pioneering work with this method while at the Procter & Gamble Co. is specially acknowledged.