Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Non Destructive Testing (NDT) is the process of inspecting com- ponents and

assemblies for discontinuities, or differences in char- acteristics without destroying the

serviceability of the part or system. In other words, when the inspection is completed the

part can still be used. Liquid penetrant testing is one of the oldest and simplest NDT

methods where its earliest versions date back to the 19th century. It is a low-cost

inspection method used to locate surface-breaking defects in all nonporous materials

(metals, plas- tics, or ceramics) and is widely used in all the industries. The pen- etrant

may be applied to all non-ferrous materials and ferrous materials. Liquid Penetrant

Testing (LPT) is used to detect surface defects such as hairline cracks, surface porosity

in new in cast, forged, welded components, and fatigue cracks on in-service

components.

In LPT, a liquid called penetrant is applied on the test surface,and is maintained

on the surface for duration generally 5 to 10 min. This time is called dwell time and

is the time given for the liquid to penetrate through any surface defect such as a crack.

After the dwell time, the liquid on the surface is removed by wip ing with a cloth

leaving a residue of the penetrant in any open defect into which the liquid has

penetrated. This penetrant comes out to the surface slowly with the aid of a porous

powder sprayed on the surface. The liquid which has come out is clearly visible and

indicated by the red colour of the penetrant and is called the indi- cation. The size of the

indication is proportional to the size of the defect.

Literature survey has been carried out for understanding the detailed concept of

Liquid Penetrant Testing and the research works so far performed. LPT is used for

detecting defects over the surface of wide range of material structures and components.

1
Beril Tugrul stated that Methyl Chloroform is the best penetrant for testing the surface

discontinuities efficiently. Even though it is an efficient penetrant, it is a highly pollutant

which affects the ozone layer severely. Hence, the author addressed the special eco-

friendly penetrant for carrying out the LPT which is 2,2-Dichl oro-1,1,1-trifluoroethane

(HCFC – 123). Ashok Reddy investi- gated the surface irregularities on SS304L welded

samples with the help of various non-destructive evaluation techniques includ- ing

liquid penetrant test. The author compared the effectiveness of Magnetic Particle

Testing method, Liquid Penetrant Testing method, and Ultrasonic Testing method of

detecting the surface discontinuities. Hasan Sezer Sezgin et al. had addressed a new

approach for Liquid Penetrant Testing technique in which CdTe quantum dots coated

with radio labeled Zinc Sulphate hadbeen suggested as the penetrant. The results of the

investigation revealed that the proposed penetrant was so efficient than the reg- ularly

used penetrants for the testing. Narasimha Moorthy Inampudi et al. had investigated the

quality analysis on different mould castings made by Slag, Silica and the combination of

Slag and Silica.

The test results ensured the desirable surface finish of the prepared mould

castings. Idris et al. had evaluated the sur- face quality of Aluminium 5083 Alloy

material produced with four different casting methods by means of three different non-

destructive techniques including LPT. In-situ melting and solidification methods had

been suggested as best casting techniques to produce AA5083 with good surface finish.

Daneshvar et al. had addressed the use of fluorescent penetrant testing method of

detecting surface cracks present on the welded structures. Quan- tum Dots had been

suggested as the penetrant for the testing for its good environmental friendly

characteristic. Katsusuke Shi- mizu et al. tested the surface discontinuities over the

international thermonuclear experimental reactor vacuum vessel with the aid of liquid

2
penetrant testing technique. LPT technique is the efficient technique to identify the

surface irregularities over the vacuum vessels [7]. Xu Guirong et al. had reported that the

liquid penetrant testing is the efficient non-destructive defect detecting technique for

helicopter and airplane components. The difficulties while per- forming the LPT for

testing the airplane parts as the testing arrangements, surface preparations of the testing

components and preserving the components under working had been explained.

Delenkovskii et al. had studied the defects filling in glass sam- ples and stainless steel by

means of LPT. The obtained results indi- cated that the technique was so efficient to

identify minute cracks even in the range of 1 – 3 lm.

From the literature study, the significance of LPT was under- stood. In the current

work, it is planned to analyze the effect of vibration and temperature on the effectiveness

of liquid penetrant testing method and to find the optimum temperature and the cor-

responding vibration level to get the clear and bright indication of the penetrant on

developer surface. Also there is no such publica- tion in research journals with different

vibration levels on pene- trant testing. Hence in this work, the analysis is made in such a

way that to reduce the developing time and increase the indication size in mass production

industries by means of working under optimal level of vibration.

3
 CHAPTER 2
MATERIALS AND METHODS

Penetrant may be applied to the test component by dipping, spraying, or brushing.

After adequate penetration time has been allowed, the excess penetrant is removed

and a developer is applied. The developer helps to draw penetrant out of the flaw× so

that an invisible indication becomes visible to the inspector. Inspection is performed

under an ultraviolet or white light, depending on the type of dye used -fluorescent or no

fluorescent (visible). The basic physical phenomena that control the effective- ness of

the technique are Capillarity reaction, wettability / contact angle, viscosity of penetrant.

The materials, process and proce- dures are designed to facilitate capillarity through

the surface dis- continuities for sensitive application of liquid penetrant testing.The

material chosen to carry out the experiment was from A516 series of carbon steel added

with manganese, silicon and other ele- ments in small quantities. These plain low carbon

steels are used in boiler and pressure vessel application and in oil, gas, and petro-

chemical industry. Totally six specimens were prepared by first machining it to the

required dimensions i.e., 35 35 6 mm. The experiments were done using linear

surface opening disconti- nuity; we used aluminium foil of small thickness in

between the two base metals to create the gap. The size of the discontinuity was

0.37 mm, 0.33 mm, and 0.22 mm. The length of the opening is 5 mm. Two plates

were butt welded intermittently, and the unwelded portion is the linear discontinuity /

gap. The welds were ground flat and the dimensions were measured using tool maker’s

microscope. The chemical analysis was performed with X-ray spec- troscopy to

estimate the composition of the base metal. The chem- ical composition and

mechanical properties of the base metal are shown in Tables 2.1 and 2.2 respectively

4
 Table 2.1 Chemical composition of base metal A516 Grade 70.

Table 2.2 Mechanical properties of plain low carbon steel A516 Grade 70

Table 2.3 Details of Experimentation

5
Table 2.4 Images of the indications developed under
32 _C and 1200 Hz Frequency

6
 CHAPTER 3
EXPERIMENTAL WORK

Normally, LPT requires 10–15 min of dwell time for the developer to enter the defects and

around 5 min of developing time, that is, time required for penetrant to come out of the defect

and form the indication. A study was conducted under controlled vibration and temperature

during testing and measures its effect on developing time. Specimens were prepared by tack

welding two plates of 25 mm _ 15 mm _ 6 mm, with a pre-set of 0.22 mm, 0.33 mm,0.37

gaps. The gaps were set by using aluminium foils and weldedat the end of the samples. The

gaps were verified by using a low

Fig. 3.1. Experimental Setup.

power microscope. The bottom gap was sealed by a sealant ensuring that water does not enter

the opening from bottom side and affect the experiment. Samples were kept on a frame and

the frame was vibrated using unbalanced motor placed on the frame. Vibration was measured

using a vibrometer. The samples were placed in a small plastic tank filled with water and

7
temperature of water was controlled by using hot water or cold water. Water Temperature

was measured by using a thermometer. The test was conducted for three different crack

lengths and also for three different vibrations under three different temperature levels as

detailed in Table 3.

Table 5 Dimensions of Indications obtained under 32 °C temperature and High

Vibration condition (1200 Hz).

The indications were photographed by an 8 mega pixel digital camera and the

photographed images were used for measuring the indication dimensions. The experimental

arrangement is shown in the Figure 1. In the set up, the indication ‘10 represents the

8
oscilloscope, 2 – converter, ‘30, ‘40 and ‘50 represent oscillometer, tray and vibration motor

respectively.

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The vibrations levels / frequencies are obtained by fixing a vibration motor to the setup. All

the conditions were monitored and photographed; and also the dimensions of the penetrant

developed were measured accurately using Photoshop software. The measurements were

done in order to study the effect of the temperature and vibration in the penetration, dwell

time and capillarity of the penetrant. The observations were made between 2 and 20 min of

time period in the order of 2 s gap in between each observation. The dimensions of the

developed penetrant clearly indicated the difference in shape because of the differences in

vibration level and temperature. From the observations, it was noted that the specimens with

temperature of 32 _C (Room temperature) combined with high

9
Fig. 4.1. Observation Time vs. Length of Indication under 32_C and High Vibration
condition.

Fig.4.2. Observation Time vs. Width of Indication under 32_C and High Vibration

condition.

10
vibration were founded to have the lowest dwell time, brightest representation and clearly

visible indication (developed in very less time). The observed measurements under 32 _C

temperature and high vibration condition are presented in table 4. The indication sizes of the

cracks on the specimens measured during the experimentation were noted for the different

vibration and temperature conditions. Among them, the observed results for the optimal

condition i.e., for high frequency vibration and 32 _C temperature condition are presented in

the table 5. The plots between the length and width of indications vs. the processing time

were drawn and analyzed. The plots for 32 _C – High vibration condition, 10 _C – High

vibration and 32 _C – Low Vibration condition are presented in the Figures 2–7 for

understanding the difference in indication levels.

Fig. 4.3. Observation Time vs. Length of Indication under 10_C and High Vibration
Condition

11
 Fig. 4.4. Observation Time vs. Width of Indication under 10_C and High Vibration
condition.

Fig. 4.5. Observation Time vs. Length of Indication (Fig. 6) under 32_C and Low Vibration
condition

12
 Fig. 4.6 Observation Time vs. Width of Indication (Fig. 7) under 32_C and Low
Vibration condition

From the figures, it is clear that the Liquid Penetrant Test is highly effective while the test is

being conducted at high temperature and high vibration condition. Hence, it can be concluded

that 32 _C temperature & 1200 Hz vibration environment yields better results for the Liquid

Penetrant test on plain low carbon steel A516 Grade 70. Hence, this condition can be

considered as the optimal condition for the largest indication.

13
 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

This study aims to clarify the role of temperature and vibration in indications

produced by Liquid penetrant tests on components. The recommendation is formulated

concerning the penetrant testing procedure of vibrating components and the cleaning

procedurefor penetrant tested areas under vibration after a dye penetrant test. The optimum

temperature and vibration levels for operation were identified for a penetrant. The proposed

work was carried out under different temperature conditions and it was found that at 32 _C

with high vibration (1200 Hz) requires lesser developing time

14
 REFERENCES

[1] Katherine M.M. Tant, Anthony J. Mulholland, Andrew Curtis, Winifred L.

Ijomah, Design-for-testing for improved remanufacturability, J. Remanuf. 9

(1) (2019) 61–72, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13243-018-0057-7.

[2] A. Beril Tugrul, Capillary effect analysis for alternative liquid penetrant

chemicals, NDT E Int. 30 (1) (1997) 19–23, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0963-

8695(96)00044-8.

[3] K. Ashok Reddu, Non-destructive testing, evaluation of stainless steel

materials, Mater. Today: Proc. 4 (8) (2017) 7302–7312,

https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.matpr.2017.07.060.

[4] Narasimha Moorthy Inampudi, Babu Rao Jinugu, Non destructive

15
 evaluation of A356 alloy castings made in sand and granulated blast furnace

slag moulds, Mater. Today: Proc. 5 (1) (2018) 168–174,

https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.matpr.2017.11.068.

[5] J. Idris, A. Al-Bakoosh, Application of non-destructive testing techniques

for the assessment of casting of AA5083 alloy, J. Adv. Res. Appl. Mech. 3 (1)

(2014) 25– 34.

[6] K. Daneshvar, B. Dogan, Application of quantum dots as a fluorescent-

penetrant for weld crack detection, Mater. High Temp. 27 (3) (2010) 179–

182, https://doi. org/10.3184/096034010X12813744660988

[7] Katsusuke Shimizu, Masanori Onozuka, Yukinori Usui, Kazuhiro Urata,

Yoshihiro Tsujita, Masataka Nakahira, Nobukazu Takeda, Satoshi

Kakudate, Junji Ohmori, Kiyoshi Shibanuma, Demonstration tests for

manufacturing the ITER vacuum vessel, Fusion Eng. Des. 82 (15–24) (2007)

2081–2088, https://doi. org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2007.08.015.

[8] Xu. Guirong, Guon Xuesong, Qiao Yuliang, Gao Yan, Analysis and

Innovation for penetrant testing for airplane parts, Procedia Eng. 99 (2015)

1438–1442, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.12.681.

[9] N.V. Delenkovskii, A.B. Gnusin, Vacuum intensification of filling defects

with penetrants under Liquid-penetrant testing, Russ. J. Nondestr. Test. 55 (1)

(2019) 68–72, https://doi.org/10.1134/S1061830919010042

16
17