Inspection of non-planar shaped welded joints of piping using FMC ultrasonic testing

In the inspection of piping with weld reinforcement, the weld reinforcement is removed and its surface is smoothed, and an UT probe is scanned to detect any flaws. It is desirable to conduct UT without removing the weld reinforcement to reduce the inspection time. FMC-UT in which a wedge is installed on the weld reinforcement on the piping has been proposed to avoid removal. This presents another challenge: the huge amount of processing time for imaging in the piping. This research develops an inspection method with high flaw detectability in short image processing times. The high speed calculation method of the propagation path and extraction processing of the piping surface to improve flaw detectability are described. The developed method detects and images a 1 mm notch from the top of the weld reinforcement on the piping in a short time. © 2023 The Authors.