Continuous monitoring of an intentionally-manufactured crack using an automated welding and in-process inspection system

Javadi, Yashar and Mohseni, Ehsan and MacLeod, Charles N. and Lines, David and Vasilev, Momchil and Mineo, Carmelo and Foster, Euan and Pierce, Stephen G. and Gachagan, Anthony (2020) Continuous monitoring of an intentionally-manufactured crack using an automated welding and in-process inspection system. Materials and Design, 191. 108655. ISSN 0261-3069 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2020.108655)

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Abstract

Automated weld deposition coupled with the real-time robotic Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) is used in this paper. For performance verification of the in-process inspection system, an intentionally embedded defect, a tungsten rod, is introduced into the multi-pass weld. A partially-filled groove (staircase) sample is also manufactured and ultrasonically tested to calibrate the real-time inspection implemented on all seven layers of the weld which are deposited progressively. The tungsten rod is successfully detected in the real-time NDE of the deposited position. The same robotic inspection system was then used to continuously monitor an intentionally-manufactured crack for 20 h. The crack was initiated 22 min after the weld ended and it grew quickly within the next 1.5 h. The crack growth stopped approximately after 2 h and no considerable change in the reflection signal was detected for the next 18 h of monitoring.