A Novel ultrasonic evaluation process for cavitation damage by combination of attenuation and higher harmonics

Wan, T.; Wakui, Takashi  ; Naoe, Takashi   ; Futakawa, Masatoshi  ; Maekawa, Katsuhiro*; Wan, T.*

The mercury target system is used for MW-scale neutron sources in the Japan Spallation Neutron Source. During this operation, cavitation damage is imposed on the mercury target vessel. It is very important to nondestructively evaluate the cavitation damage from the viewpoints of the structural integrity evaluation and lifetime estimation of the mercury target vessel. In this study, the cavitation damage was evaluated using a nonlinear ultrasonic method. First, the cavitation damage was imposed on plate specimens using an electro-Magnetic IMpact Testing Machine with 108 impact cycles. Nonlinear ultrasonic imaging was used to evaluate the damage. We found that the damping factor and higher harmonics of reflected waveforms from the damaged area can be used to evaluate the damage. An effective cavitation damage evaluation process has been developed based on our results. The evaluation process successfully detected minimal cavitation damage with peak-to-peak roughness of about 25 m.