United States Department of Transportation
i
Implementation of Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing (PAUT) For Bridge Welds
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2024-02-01
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[PDF-7.01 MB]
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Edition:Final Report
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Abstract:The objective of this study is to improve the quality control of steel bridge fabrication by expanding the available nondestructive testing options beyond conventional ultrasonic testing (UT) and radiographic inspection methods. The primary focus of this research is to assess the acceptability of phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) as an alternative to radiography when the governing American Welding Society (AWS) specification mandates the latter for fabrication inspection.(1,2) To achieve this goal, the research team created a series of representative heavy section steel welds containing fabricated discontinuities. Subsequently, the team inspected these welds using PAUT, conventional UT, and radiography. (3–5) The study successfully demonstrated the feasibility of employing PAUT on typical bridge complete joint penetration butt welds. Notably, the researchers observed a strong correlation among the results obtained from PAUT, conventional UT, and radiography within the limited sample set used for this study. Based on the research findings, this study offers two key recommendations. First, it suggests fabricating and inspecting a more comprehensive matrix of representative flaw types, joint configurations, and plate thicknesses. Second, the study proposes evaluating ultrasonic beam modeling techniques to reduce the number of additional specimens required for testing.
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