1.

0 Introduction

Welding defects occurs when there are weld surface irregularities,

discontinuities, imperfections, or inconsistencies that occur in welded parts. This will

cause the part and assemblies rejected, high cost to repair, low performance under

working conditions and the worst case it can cause catastrophic failures with loss of

property and life.

In order to avoid the problem cause by welding defect and to ensure the

satisfactory performance of welded structure, the quality of the welds must be

determined by proper testing procedures. There are two type of testing that can be

used to determine the quality of welded parts that are Destructive Testing (DT) and

Non- Destructive Testing (NDT).

Destructive Testing are tests that carried out until the specimen fail, in order to

understand a specimen’s behavior under different loads. Meanwhile, Non-

Destructive Testing are analysis techniques used in science and technology industry

to evaluate the properties of material, component or system without causing damage

to the specimen. It is most practical way to use NDT to check the quality of weld

structure since it is cost effective. This is because the specimen or product does not

need to be destroyed in order to check the weld defect. One type of NDT is

radiography testing.

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2.0 Radiography Testing

2.1 Definition

Radiography testing (RT) is one type of non-destruction testing (NDT) that

involves the use of either x-rays or gamma rays to inspect the internal structure of

the component. The history of radiography testing start after the discovery of x-

Rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1895 and the discovery of new radioactive

material called “Radium” by Marie Curie in December 1898.

2.2 Basic Principle

The working principal of using radiography testing in welding are same as

the medical radiography. The part that need to be inspected are placed in

between the radiation source and a piece of sensitive film. The source of

radiation can come from x-ray machine or any other radioactive source such as

Iridium-192, Cobalt-60 or in rare cases Caesium-137.

The radiation source will pass through the specimen to the sensitive film.

When the radiation hit the thicker and denser part of the specimen it will stop

some radiation that pass through. Then it will hit the sensitive film and forms a

shadowgraph of the part. The film darkness will vary with the amount of radiation

reaching the film through the specimen where darker areas indicate more

exposure to radiation intensity and lighter areas indicates less exposure to

radiation intensity. The variation of the image darkness can be used to determine

thickness or composition of material and would also reveal the presence of any

flaws or discontinuity inside the material.

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2.3 Imaging Method

2.3.1 Conventional Radiography

Conventional radiography are the most basic type of

radiography testing which use a sensitive film that reacts to the emitted

radiation to capture an image of the part being tested. Then this image

need to be process in order to analyze the specimen. The biggest

drawback to this technique is that films can only be used once and they

take a long time to process and interpret. Figure 1 shows the side view

of conventional radiography method.

Figure 1: Conventional Radiography

2.3.2 Computed Radiography

The system of Computed radiography (CR) is similar to

conventional radiography but this method replace the uses of film to a

phosphor imaging. This method is much faster compared to

conventional radiography but slower than direct radiography. CR

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requires several extra procedures compared to direct radiography.

First, the image of the specimen will be indirectly captured on the

phosphor plate. Then the image will be transformed into digital signal

which will be visualized on the computer. The quality of the image if fair

but by using appropriate tools and techniques the quality can be

improved. Precaution must be taken during the improvement of quality

of the image in order to avoid the defect from being hidden. Figure 2

shows how the computed radiography operated.

Figure 2: Computed Radiography

2.3.3 Directed Radiography

This method is same as CR but it change the way of how the

image is captured. Instead of using phosphor imaging in CR, in DR the

image will be capture using a flat panel detector and the image will be

displayed on the computer screen. This technique is much faster and

produce higher quality image than CR but it is much costly than CR.

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2.3.4 Real-Time Radiography

As the name suggested Real-Time Radiography (RTR) allows

the specimen to be analysed in real time. RTR works by emitting the

radiation through the specimen and then these radiation will interact

with special phosphor screen or flat panel detector containing micro-

electronic sensor. These interaction will creates a digital image that can

be viewed and analysed in real time. This can be easily understand by

referring figure 3 that shows the schematic diagram of RTR system.

The most advantages of RTR are that the specimen can be

analysed in real-time. Besides, the image can be easily storage

compared to conventional radiography which a huge storage space is

needed to keep the film of the specimen.

The disadvantages of RTR is that it contrast sensitivity are quite

low and it has limited image resolution compared to conventional

radiography. The images created always suffers from limited

resolution, uneven illumination, noise and lacks of sharpness.

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 Figure 3: Schematic of Real-Time Radiography System

2.3.5 Computed Tomography

Computed tomography (CT) works by taking a lot of 2D

radiography scan depend on size of specimen and superimpose it to

develop a 3D radiography image.

There are two ways of using CT which is the first one is by

rotating the radiation sauce and x-ray detector around the stationary

component that need to be inspected. Usually this techniques will be

used for a large components. Next method is by keep the radiation

sauce and x-ray detector stationary while the component is rotating.

This methods is useful for the smaller component or the component

has complex geometry. The position of the component can be shown in

figure 4.

CT produced a high quality and accurate image which can

minimize human error even though this method is quite expensive,

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 consume a lot of time and need a larger amount of data storage to

keep it.

Figure 4: Computed Tomography System

2.4 Radiography Testing Technique

2.4.1 Single Wall, Single Image (SWSI)

This techniques also known as panoramic exposure which the

radiographic source will be placed inside the pipe and then the film will

be wrapped around the outside of the pipe and the exposure made as

shown in figure 5 meanwhile the image quality indicator (IQI) is placed

on the outside of the pipe beneath the film. The radiation source can be

either x-rays or gamma rays can be used. In order to place the source

inside the pipe, the pre-placed spider or crawler unit is used as shown

in figure 6. This is the most commonly used method for inspection of

pipelines where the weld can be radiographed in one exposure which

make this technique is rapid and cost effective.

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 Figure 5: Single Wall, Single Image Technique

Figure 6: Crawler unit for inserting the radiation inside the pipelines

2.4.2 Double Wall, Single Image (DWSI)

This method is used when the access to the pipe are impossible

for the radiation source to be placed inside. This method will placed the

film outside the pipe on the farthest side from the radiographic source

as we can see in figure 7. This method has low sensitivity compared to

single wall method since the radioactive source need to penetrate two

wall thickness. This technique also consume time since it need multiple

exposure in order to analyse the complete circumference of the pipe.

This method usually being used on pipes over 80mm in diameters.

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 Figure 7: Double Wall, Single Image Technique

2.4.3 Double Wall, Double Image (DWDI)

This technique is usually used only for pipe between 75-80 mm

in diameter. By offsetting the source from the weld center line and

using a long source to film distance it is possible to project an image

onto the film of both the upper and the lower parts of the weld as

shown in figure 8. This method also required multiple exposures to

achieve complete coverage of the pipe.

Figure 8: Double Wall, Double Image Technique

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3.0 Discussion

The advantage of radiography testing is it can be used to inspect almost all

material. This is because this testing used radiation to penetrate the specimen.

Besides, by using radiography testing, the outside and internal side discontinuities

can be inspected. Moreover, this type of testing has the ability to inspect any

complex shapes, hidden areas and multi-layered structures without the need of

disassembly which means this will greatly reduce the time consumption for the

inspection. The other advantages of radiography testing it only required minimum

part preparation before the testing procedures is continued. Next, this technique has

its own standard and references to be used in order to inspect the weld profile. By

having this references it is much easier for the inspector to follow the references in

order to get the satisfactory image of the inspection.

Besides all the advantages of the radiography testing, there are also some

drawback of using this method. One of the biggest disadvantages are the inspector

or personnel have high possible to be exposed to radiation hazard which can cause

other chronical disease such as cancer. Besides that, in order to use radiography

testing, the operator must have an extensive skills and training to operate the

radiography equipment which cause the high cost of using this method. Even though

the radiography testing can inspect both internal and outside of discontinuities but it

cannot shows the depth of discontinuities of the specimen. Moreover, the equipment

used for radiography testing are relatively expensive and this will make the cost of

using this method are relatively high.

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4.0 Conclusion

In conclusion for inspection of weldment, radiography testing is one of the

best method to be used since it does not need to destroy the join part like destructive

testing. This technique can greatly reduce time for the inspection since it required

less preparation before the inspection start. There are many techniques under the

radiography testing that can be used depend on the requirement needed by the user.

Therefore, in order to produce a high quality weldment, the good inspection

technique is needed to detect the small discontinuities and defect of the weldment

such as using radiography testing for the inspection.

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5.0 References

1. Radiographic Testing (RT). (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2020, from

https://inspectioneering.com/tag/radiography

2. Radiographic Testing. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2020, from

http://www.wermac.org/others/ndt_rt.html

3. ESAB Knowledge center. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2020, from

https://www.esabna.com/us/en/education/blog/radiographic-and-ultrasonic-

testing-of-welds.cfm

4. Radiographic Testing Procedure. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2020, from

https://www.inspection-for-industry.com/radiographic-testing.html

5. Mathers, G. (n.d.). Radiography Part 2. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from

https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/job-knowledge/radiography-

part-2-125

6. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2020, from http://www.ndt-kits.com/X-ray-pipeline-

crawlers-RM0026-s-413-457.html

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