Acoustic Emission Studies on Weld Bead Defects in Nuclear Grade SS 316L Materials

Abstract

This paper contributes about the behaviour of Acoustic Emission (AE) signatures of implanted weld defects of SS 316L materials. Lack of penetration and lack of side fusion defects were implanted in weld bead region of the materials. Tungsten Inert Gas Welding (TIG) is adopted to weld the Stainless Steel (SS316L) nuclear grade materials. The material is fabricated with dimensions of 140 × 16 × 10 mm and AE signatures are studied under preload conditions. Mechanical Jig is fabricated to maintain constant load in concentrated weld region. When external load is applied on the weld region, the deformed specimen experiences acoustic emission signals form the weld defect region which are potential source of releasing stress energy. Liner Location Technique (LLT) is adopted for AE singal studies and the generated signal is processed by 2-channel USB—AE node and AE-WIN software. The tests are conducted on two different samples having each defect. A conventional NDT method i.e. X-ray Radiography is conducted on the samples to know the defect ranging and correlated with AE signatures. This study will be helpful to standardize the AE signals for different implanted weld defects of SS 316L materials and it is found that, the parameter “counts vs. amplitude” has given the widest distinction with respect to the type of defects.