Ultrasonic guided wave approach for inspecting concave surface of the laser butt-welded pipe

Furusawa, Akinori   ; Nishimura, Akihiko  ; Takebe, Toshihiko*; Nakamura, Masaki*; Takenaka, Yusuke*; Saijo, Shingo*; Nakamoto, Hiroyuki*

The aim of this work is to investigate the applicability of ultrasonic guided wave for evaluation of laser beam butt-welding quality. Ten in total test pipes having welding seam is prepared. Two piece of pipe are jointed and continuous laser beam is irradiated on the edges, varying laser irradiation power, welding side and surface profile of the adjacent edges of the pipe. Ultrasonic guided wave testing experiment is performed on the pipes. Torsional mode guided wave is excited by EMAT. The experimental results are analyzed and issues are discussed. The reflection wave bullet from the poor interface of the welding seam is clearly observed, whereas no reflection from fine welded line. From the aspect of laser irradiation power, welding side and surface profile of the adjacent edges, the relation between the interface condition and detection wave bullet are analyzed. It is found that the ultrasonic guided wave technologies have the potential for evaluating laser beam butt-welding seam.