Schaali1,

Stainless steel weld can respond drastically different than carbon steel. Stainless steel is an
anisotropic material, which makes it very dificult to penetrate with ultrasound. The ASME B&PV
Code acknowledges this in Section V paragraph T-451 which states "it is usually necessary to modify
and/or supplement the general provisions in order to test the material." It is typical that shear
waves cannot be used and angle beam inspections must be carried out using longitudinal waves.

We welded a 2" thick stainless steel shell and found an additional 34 dB of attenuation in the weld
versus base material. Since your piping is thinner the affect would not be as great, but significant
undertesting can occur if welded stainless steel calibration blocks are not used to establish the test
sensitivity.

hogan666 (Structural) 10 Feb 09 11:34

I would agree that UT is a poor choice for SS. A calibration on CS for SS would be useless.

would agree that UT is a poor choice for SS. A calibration on CS for SS would be useless.
JoeTank (Structural) 10 Feb 09 11:52
I've heard many times that SS welds require "special" considerations when inspecting by
UT. My question now relates to thickness measurements. Is there much difference between
UT thickness readings for CS and SS components when calibration is on a CS block. The
components are typically tanks, vessels and piping with thicknesses in the range of 1/8" to 1".

JoeTank;
Yes, there is a difference. You should have a set of stepped blocks to calibrate your thickness meter
or with UT using an L-wave for austenitic stainless steel. There are differences in sound attenuation
between austenitic stainless steel and carbon steel that could result in thickness measurement
errors.

Errors in thickness measurements are solely a result of the test piece acoustic velocity being
different than the velocity of the sample used to calibrate the instrumentation. According to the
NDT Handbook, Volume 7 longitudinal velocities of steel range from 5,830 to 5,900
m/sec. Austenitic stainless steel velocities range from 5,660 to 5,740 m/sec. If an average of both
ranges are used; inspecting a stainless steel component based on a calibration performed on mild
steel will result in readings approximately 2.9% thicker than the actual component thickness.

Another concern is velocity variations within thick (several inches)stainless steel forgings and
castings. I have seen velocity variations approaching 10% when the center of the piece is compared
to the extremity. Even calibrating the instrument on the same piece then measuring an area with a
different velocity will result in inaccurate readings.
In our shop ultrasonic thickness gaging is a method of lst resort, only used when direct measurement
is not possible.

97
JoeTank (Structural) 10 Feb 09 15:48
metengr and JR97,
Thanks for the feedback. That's pretty much what I had heard from less knowledgeable folks
than y'all (2 to 4 percent error on high side for SS when using CS block).

Joe Tank

ndeguy (Industrial) 12 Feb 09 10:23

Shear wave inspection of stainless steel welds requires use of high angle low frequency
longitudinal waves to minimise the beam-skewing effect from the columnar cast structure of
the weld metal. Appropriate welded test blocks with artificial reflectors are also required to
demonstrate the path of the sound beams is giving complete coverage.

Nigel Armstrong
Lloyds Register
Independent Verification Body Surveyor

retthib (Petroleum) 13 Feb 09 20:55

I recently ran a test for a client. I calibrated to S/S and took readings on a C/S pipe. Then
calibrated to C/S and took readings at the same locations. My thickness readings varied .030"
on same. That's dealing with materials 3/8" to .5" thick.

API-510 cert # 32890

HouseHark (Industrial) 1 Aug 09 09:38

There are different types of Stainless Steel. Austenitic is the difficult one to test with UT.

I think some are easier and more similar to carbon steel.

WBH (Mechanical) 28 Aug 09 01:34

The longitudinal velocity of carbon steel and stainless steel are the same. The shear velocity
of the CS and SS are significantly different and will impact the test results. This has been
done in the industry for many years, most step blocks are carbon steel with a nickel chrome
protective coating. When you get a chance look a the corners of the step block, if used for a
while the coating will be chipped at one or more of the corners.
JR97 (Mechanical) 28 Aug 09 10:43
WBH,

I must disagree with your comment that the longitudinal velocities of carbon and stainless
steels are the same. As I posted earlier, referring to the NDT Handbook, VOlume 7, Table 1,
the velocity for 300 series stainlesses are about 3% slower than typical carbon steels.

JR97
WBH (Mechanical) 31 Aug 09 00:53
JR97

http://www.k2technde.com/downloads/Angle%20Bm%20General.pdf