Attempt Towards the Replacement of Radiography with Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing of Steel Plate Welded Joints Performed on Bridges and Other Applications

Abstract

This study was carried out to demonstrate if the phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) can be adopted as a suitable substitute of the radiography testing (RT) of steel plate’s welded joints required by codes and standards related to some projects such as bridges construction and inspection according to AWS D1.5 Bridge welding code. Such adoption, if approved, can realize considerable cost saving without taking any additional risk. The two cited inspection techniques had been applied to test four butt welded joints performed on steel plates having thicknesses up to 35 mm. These welded joints had been performed by shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) and containing selected artificial flaws. The comparison between the detection capabilities and characterization of flaws in the welded joints by the two inspection techniques reveals that; PAUT improves the detection capability and sizing of flaws in the welded joints and it can replace RT reliably in case of applying a suitable PAUT procedure that includes simultaneous application of sectorial scan from both sides of the welded joints axes by using encoder with wide active aperture phased array probes and applying supplemental manual scanning for edge testing.