RU171559U1 - Ultrasonic transducer for ultrasonic inspection of the weld and / or the weld zone of pipes - Google Patents

Abstract

Usage: for ultrasonic inspection of the seam and / or the heat-affected zone of the pipe. The essence of the utility model is that the ultrasonic transducer includes a housing with an opening for a local immersion bath and blocks of active elements (BAE) located in this hole, the housing additionally contains at least one device for physically moving the BAE at least in the direction perpendicular to the seam, and their fixation at a certain distance from the reference point, equipped with a coordinate indicator for each BAE relative to the reference point and ensuring easy replacement of BAE when switching to a new standard size p pipes and / or the standard according to which ultrasonic testing is supposed to be carried out, and the BAE themselves generally have a different design and a different number of active elements, which is selected from a range of values from 1 to 32. Technical result: increased reliability of flaw detection equipment. 4 s.p. f-ly, 7 ill.

Description

The utility model relates to the field of ultrasonic testing of pipe welds and can be used using a wide block-phased array, overlapping the seam and a significant part of the heat-affected zone, as well as to adjust to various sizes exclusively electronically and activate the corresponding sets of elements.

Known ultrasonic transducers for ultrasonic testing of the weld and the heat-affected zone of pipes containing a body with an opening for a local immersion bath, as well as in the General case, one or two types of blocks of active elements having a fixed position relative to the weld. All blocks are, as a rule, linear phased arrays, consisting of a large number of active piezoelectric elements. The task of each such unit and the totality is to cover with a similar type a sufficiently large area in the weld area and / or adjacent to the weld and provide the necessary set of ultrasonic inspection schemes for the weld and heat-affected zone, which corresponds to a given pipe size and the applicable standard for ultrasonic testing.

A set of one to three of these blocks allows for control over a wide range of pipe sizes. Optimization for the required pipe size (first of all, this is the outer diameter and wall thickness) is carried out electronically in accordance with the technology of using phased arrays.

The advantage of this solution is its high versatility and configuration flexibility: the same ultrasound transducer with a set of a very small number of active element blocks with a fixed position of these blocks in the housing can provide control over a wide range of pipe sizes, in accordance with a whole set of norms and standards .

The disadvantage of this solution, which is especially manifested in the control of pipes with a large wall thickness, is the large total number of active elements, and therefore a large number of flaw electronics channels. This, in turn, reduces the operational reliability of the equipment and increases its cost [1].

In fact, if we assume that the pipe wall thickness is 40 mm, then the tandem insertion area according to the Shell specification will be at least 2 X 80 mm (see Fig. 1) on each side of the weld. Given the operational margin, it is necessary to cover an area of approximately 200 mm. This means that with an active element pitch of 0.5 mm, the number of channels should be 400. The multiplexing capabilities are greatly limited by modern requirements for system speed and ultrasonic control density. It should be borne in mind that the cost of electronics, the cost of an ultrasonic transducer, as well as the cost of operating costs are in a first approximation proportional to the number of corresponding channels. At the same time, equipment reliability is generally inversely proportional to the amount of electronics.

The aim of the present invention is to increase the reliability of flaw detection equipment, reducing its cost and the amount of operating costs.

This goal is achieved by the fact that in the ultrasonic transducer for ultrasonic monitoring of the weld and / or the heat-affected zone of the pipes, comprising a housing with an opening for a local immersion bath and blocks of active elements (BAE) located in this opening, the housing additionally contains at least one device for physical relocate BAE at least in the direction perpendicular to the seam, and fix it at a certain, in general, arbitrary distance from the reference point, equipped with a coordinate indicator for each BAE To start the counting and ensure easy replacement of BAE during the transition to a new tube size and / or the standard according to which ultrasonic testing is supposed to be carried out, and BAE themselves generally have a different design and a different number of active elements, which is selected from a range of values from 1 to 32 .

The goal is also achieved by the fact that the body of the ultrasonic transducer contains two holes shifted relative to each other along the seam by a distance slightly larger than the dimensions of the active elements in the direction of the axis of the seam, in one of which the same type of BAE are placed on one side of the seam, and in the other on the other .

The goal is also achieved due to the fact that in addition to BAE, at least one block of ultrasonic reflectors is additionally placed in each hole.

The goal is also achieved due to the fact that the housing of the ultrasonic transducer contains, in addition to the main holes, six additional holes for accommodating additional BAEs, designed primarily to detect discontinuities that are transverse and / or inclined with respect to the weld axis, and additional holes can serve as additional locally immersion baths or place BAE, making gap acoustic contact with the object of control.

The goal is also achieved by the fact that the equipment is optimized for a given range of applicable norms and pipe sizes by moving the BAE relative to each other.

Description of figures

FIG. 1. The principle of using a wide block-phased array, overlapping the seam and a significant part of the heat affected zone. Adjustment to various sizes can be carried out exclusively electronically, by activating the corresponding sets of elements

FIG. 2. Model of an ultrasonic transducer for monitoring the seam and / or the heat affected area, plan. No nozzles for contact fluid are shown.

FIG. 3. Model of an ultrasonic transducer for monitoring the seam and / or the heat affected area, section.

FIG. 4. Artificial defects D1-D11, which are configured blocks of active elements (BAE), plan.

FIG. 5. Artificial defects D1-D11, which are configured blocks of active elements (BAE), section.

FIG. 6. BAE operation algorithm: both phased arrays and single-chip BAEs.

FIG. 7. Transmitter equipped with another hole.

Description of the design of the utility model (Fig. 1-Fig. 7).

The ultrasonic transducer comprises a housing 1 with seven openings 2-8, generally having a different shape. The housing 1 also contains a UMP device for mechanically moving and fixing the blocks 9.1-9.8 of the active elements at some arbitrary distance from the weld 10 of the pipe 11, located near the hole 2. From the bottom to the housing 1 is attached a ski 12 with a cutout 13 for the reinforcement bead of the weld, which serves to coordinate the converter with the pipe and protect its elements from mechanical damage to the pipe.

Additional blocks 9.9-9.14 active elements are placed in holes 3-8.

Artificial defects D1-D11, which are configured blocks of active elements (BAE), are shown in Fig. 4 and FIG. 5.

Blocks 9.1-9.14 of the active elements have the following purposes:

9.1 and 9.8 - single-chip blocks with a prism, providing an input angle of approximately 45 degrees, used in the tandem scheme, and aimed at defect D1 in the center of the weld;

9.2 and 9.7 - 16-channel phased arrays aimed at artificial defects D7, D3 and D5, D3, respectively;

9.3 and 9.6 are 16-channel phased arrays aimed at defect D1 in the center, as well as at D8 and D9 (flat-bottom drilling in the heat-affected zone).

Blocks 9.4 and 9.5 are direct single-chip converters, also aimed at D8 and D9 (flat-bottom drilling in the heat-affected zone) and supplementing in this sense blocks 9.3 and 9.6.

Groups 9.9–9.14 are made in the form of 16-channel phased arrays and are designed to detect transverse defects in the weld area and are aimed at defects D10 and D11.

The device operates as follows.

Before the start of control, the operator installs a set of BAE blocks, which corresponds to the pipe size and the applicable standard (this set, which corresponds to the size and standard, is determined in advance).

Then the operator sets the algorithm for the operation of BAE: both phased arrays, and for single-chip BAE. This algorithm, corresponding to the size and standard, is also determined in advance.

An example of such an algorithm, which corresponds to the circuit of FIG. 6 is shown in table 1. Blocks 9.5-9.8 in FIG. 6 are not shown, since these blocks are symmetrical to blocks 9.1-9.4. Blocks 9.9, 9.11, 9.12, and 9.14 that implement the X-pattern of sounding the seam zone are not used at all in this example. Transverse defects are detected using blocks 9.10 and 9.13 located above the seam. The speaker system is divided into beats.

Auxiliary clocks designed to test the acoustic contact are formed according to schemes widely used in practice, therefore, are not shown in the table.

To reduce the number of clock cycles (and, consequently, increase the speed of the flaw detection system), it is advisable to equip the converter with one more hole, as shown in FIG. 7.

The notation in FIG. 7 are the same as in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, but instead of hole 2, two holes 2.1 are used (blocks 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, and 9.4 are placed in it) and 2.2 (designed to accommodate blocks 9.5-9.8).

For such a scheme, measures 1-5 can be combined with measures 6-10, and instead of 12 measures we get only 7. The acoustic contact for blocks 9.1-9.8 can be checked by the presence of the bottom signal:

for phased arrays by turning the direction of reception normal to the surface and for discrete blocks by applying an additional crystal oriented normal to the pipe surface.

Another way to obtain information about the state of acoustic contact can be the introduction into the non-working part of the holes 2.1 and 2.2 of the special passive sound reflecting elements (reflectors) indicated in FIG. 5 as items 9-12. In the presence of acoustic contact, these adjustable reflectors reflect part of the energy of the working ultrasonic pulses in the direction of the BAE.

Of course, to increase the operational characteristics, the ultrasonic transducer can be equipped with additional devices, for example, special sound-absorbing and / or water-retaining elements and / or partitions that are not the subject of this utility model.

Information sources

1. Dr. Michael D.C Moles (Olympus NDT Canada) et al. "Introduction to Phased Array Ultrasonic Technology Applications". 2007. Olympus NDT: pp 206. ("An Introduction to the Phased Array of Ultrasonic Engineering". 2007. Olympus NDT: P. 206).

Claims (5)

1. Ultrasonic transducer for ultrasonic monitoring of the weld and / or heat-affected zone of the pipes, comprising a housing with an opening for a local immersion bath and blocks of active elements (BAE) located in this opening, characterized in that the housing further comprises at least one device for physical movement BAE at least in the direction perpendicular to the seam, and their fixation at a certain, in general, arbitrary distance from the reference point, equipped with a pointer to the coordinates of each BAE relative to the origin from couple and ensure easy replacement BAE at the transition to the new size pipes and / or standard by which to be carried out ultrasonic testing, wherein BAE themselves have generally different design and different quantity of active elements, which is selected from the range from 1 to 32. 2. The ultrasonic transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that its body contains two holes shifted relative to each other along the seam by a distance slightly larger than the dimensions of the active elements in the direction of the axis of the seam, in one of which the same type of BAE are placed on one side of the seam, and in another - on another. 3. The ultrasonic transducer according to claim 2, characterized in that in addition to the BAE, at least one block of ultrasonic reflectors is additionally placed in each hole. 4. Ultrasonic transducer according to any one of paragraphs. 1-3, characterized in that the housing in addition to the main holes contains six additional holes to accommodate additional BAE, designed primarily to detect transverse and / or inclined discontinuities with respect to the axis of the seam, moreover, additional holes can serve as additional local immersion baths or place BAE, making gap acoustic contact with the object of control. 5. The ultrasonic transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that the equipment is optimized for a given range of applicable norms and tube sizes by moving the BAE relative to each other.

Images