This paper presents the ultrasonic characteristics of weldment and detectability of defects of weldment in Austenitic Stainless Steel Type 304 that is composed of mostly coolant piping system in nuclear power plants. The results of this experient show as follows: 1. When the ultrasonic beam detects the defects on the side of base metal and on the opposite side of weldment, the indications which was detected on the screen show different amplitude and different metal path each. 2. The ultrasonically estimated notch depth is generally oversized than actual notch depth. 3. It is easy for the false indication to show up on the screen because of columnar structure of weldment in austenitic stainless steel. 4. The higher frequencies of transducer have more difficulties to detect the defects of the opposite side of weldment because of ultrasonic attenuation in weldment and the longitudinal transmitter-receiver transducer is the most effective in detecting the opposite side defects of weldment.

The important point of MPI is the analysis of leakage field in the defective regions. The analysis of leakage field depends on many factors such like geometry and character of defect. In general the calculation of magnetic leakage fields arising from such defects presents an extremely complicated mathematical problem and is practically insoluable, since the inhomogeneities have complex geometrical shapes and may differ in physical nature. Therefore, this paper describes Hall probe measurements of residual leakage field around artificial flaws in alloy steel bar, and shows how the results to recent developments in 2D dipole and analytic models of the magnetic field defect interaction.

Since the nuclear power plants in Korea have been operated in 1979, the nondestructive testing (NDT) of pressure vessels and/or piping welds plays an important role for maintaining the safety and integrity of the plants. Ultrasonic method is superior to the other NDT method in the viewpoint of the detectability of small flaw and accuracy to determine the locations, sizes, orientations, and shapes. As the service time of the nuclear power plants is increased, the radiation level from the components is getting higher. In order to get more quantitative and reliable results and secure the inspector from the exposure to high radiation level, automation of the ultrasonic equipments has been one of the important research and development(R & D) subject. In this research, it was attempted to visualize the shape of flaws presented inside the specimen using a Modified C-Scan technique. In order to develope Modified C-Scan technique, an automatic ultrasonic scanner and a module to control the scanner were designed and fabricated. IBM-PC/XT was interfaced to the module to control the scanner. Analog signals from the SONIC MARK II were digitized by Analog-Digital Converter(ADC 0800) for Modified C-Scan display. A computer program has been developed and has capability of automatic data acquisition and processing from the digital data, which consist of maximum amplitudes in each gate range and locations. The data from Modified C-Scan results was compared with shape from artificial defects using the developed system. Focal length of focused transducer was measured. The automatic ultrasonic equipment developed through this study is essential for more accurate, reliable, and repeatable ultrasonic experiments. If the scanner are modified to meet to appropriate purposes, it can be applied to automation of ultrasonic examination of nuclear power plants and helpful to the research on ultrasonic characterization of the materials.

As the necessity of the safety diagnosis of the concrete structure, more reliable ultrasonic technique to qualify the concrete is required. In this study, the artificial surface crack depth is measured using several types of the ultrasonic probes. As results, the horizontal shear wave probe is most useful to determine the crack depth compared to the other probes. For the surface wave probe, the ultrasonic wave path is changed with the surface crack depth.

It is desirable to develop the effective NDT techniques to evaluate the strength of composite structures. In this study several of acoustic NDT techniques were applied to investigate useful parameters for evaluating the filament wound GFRP structures and following results were obtained. 1. Propagation velocity of stress wave to axial direction in the filament wound GFRP pipe depends on the effective modulus along the propagation direction and source location was parcticable from the a measured velocities. 2. By the application of acoustic emission techniques to GFRP pipe during hydraulic test, it was proven to be possible to detect the damage initiating pressure which could be evaluated nondestructively through the measuring of stress wave energy factor(SWEF). 3. The final failure pressure of GFRP was greatly influenced in the presence of pass through defects, and void-like defects were more dangerous than the laminar type defects.

Recently, there are many fields have been required for the precision measurements, as an advanced example of which, a precise change of inner structure during the hydration process of mortar was observed by ultrasonic and dielectric measurements. The results show that it is possible to determine the safety of mortar and mixing ratio, and strength growth and shrinkage rate by heat evolution.

Piezoelectric elements, backing and shoe material are the important components of the ultrasonic transducer. In this study, characteristic constants in the domestic and the foreign PZT ceramic elements are investigated, The acoustic properties of the domestic and the foreign backing and shoes are characterized. The effects of components characteristics, the kinds of the piezoelectric elements and the thickness of the wear plates are investigated for the manufactured normal beam ultrasonic transducers.

DC potential drop(DCPD) measurement system was made and the optimum measuring conditions have been studied. The room temperature resistivity of commercially available medium carbon steel(S45C) was measured using this technique. DCPD was measured in the specimens which were hardened and tempered at different temperatures. It was found that DCPD reflected the change of the microstructure during tempering very sensitively. It was possible to monitor the stage of tempering of S45C steel nondestructively using DCPD measurement.

Effects of the microstructure and the testing conditions for the detectability of the small flaw in ultrasonic testing have been studied. The detectability of the flaw was influenced not only by the grain size but also by the microstructure of the test piece. This is considered to be caused by randomization of the matrix which influences the elastic anisotropy of the grain. It was found that the detectability was improved as the frequence became higher and the beam size became smaller. The experimental results indicate that ultrasonic backscattering measurement is one of the promising methods to evaluate the detectability of the flaw indirectly.

Austempered ductile cast iron (ADI) which has been recently developed shows good mechanical properties. These properties are related to the microstructure which is greatly affected by processing variables such as austempering time and temperature. In this study, the relationships between mechanical properties from impact test, and hardness test and the results from ultrasonic velocity measurement and electrical resistivity measurement are studied on the ADI samples which are heattreated at different austempering temperature and time. From the results, we conclude the followings. The ultrasonic velocity measurement could be used for the study of austempering reaction mechanism. The electrical resistivity measurement could be used as quality assurance technique for the ADI.

Detection of creep damages in centrifugally cast HK-40 reformer furnace catalyst tube is a common problem for the safety and scheduled operation of chemical plants. This study was focused on the development of an automatic ultrasonic scanning device with which the creep damage of welded zone of HK-40 reformer tubes is detected and evaluated.

Bolting degradation problems in primary coolant pressure boundary applications have become a major concern in the nuclear industry. In the bolts concerned, the failure mechanism was either corrosion wastage(loss of bolt diameter) or stress-corrosion cracking.(3) Here the manual ultrasonic testing of RPV(Reactor Pressure Vessel) and RCP(Reactor Coolant Pump) stud has been performed. But it is difficult to detect indications because examiner can not exactly control the rotation angle and can not distinguish the indication from signals of bolt. In many cases, the critical sizes of damage depth are very small(1-2 mm order). At critical size, the crack tends to propagatecompletly through the bolt under stress, Resulting in total fracture.(3) Automatic stud scanner for studs(bolts) was developed because the precise measurement of bolt diameter is required in this circumstance. By use of this scanner, the rotation angle of probe was exactly controlled and the exposure time of radiations was reduced.