Nondestructive evaluation of welding residual stresses in dissimilar welded pipes

This paper investigates the nondestructive capability of ultrasonic waves in residual stress evaluation of dissimilar welded pipes. Longitudinal critically refracted (L _CR ) waves are employed to measure the residual stresses in a pipe-pipe joint of stainless steel 304 and carbon steel A106. Measuring the acoustoelastic constant is usually accomplished through the tensile test which needs cutting the tested material to extract tensile test specimens. However, cutting the tested pipe to complement the nondestructive ultrasonic measurement was not considered here. Instead, a dissimilar welded plate with the same welding specification, joint geometry, thickness and the same dissimilar materials is used to extract tensile test samples. The measured acoustoelastic constant of the plate along with the measured time of flight of the L _CR wave on the pipe, are utilized for ultrasonic stress measurement. A finite element model of welding process validated by hole-drilling method is used to verify the ultrasonic results. The results show good agreement between finite element and ultrasonic measurements in the pipe measured without any destructive process.