PWR reactor vessel (RV) head has a number of penetration nozzles, including nozzles with thermal sleeve for control rod drive mechanisms (CRDM) and without thermal sleeve. These nozzles are typically made of nickel-based Alloy 600 or 690 and welded to the inside of the RPV head. Cracking has been reported in Alloy 600 nozzles and the J-weld regions. These nozzles are normally inspected by eddy ...

When dealing in ultrasonic testing with inhomogeneous material structure data interpretation can be rather difficult. This is especially the case when using anisotropic dissimilar welds made from austenitic steel or nickel based alloys, which are currently used for modern power plant concepts. For better understanding of the complex interaction between the sound field and the component under te...

Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding is a widely applied manufacturing process. Angular distortion is a major problem and most pronounced among different types of distortion in the butt welded plates. This angular distortion is mainly due to nonuniform transverse shrinkage along the depth of the plates welded. Restriction of this distortion by restraint may lead to higher residual stresses. However...

I. Abstract: The prediction of the optimal weld bead width is an important aspect in shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process as it is related to the strength of the weld. This paper focuses on investigation of the development of the simple and accurate model for prediction of weld bead width of butt joint of SMAW process. Artificial neural networks technique was used to train a program in C++...

Welding is a very complex process in which the final weld quality can be affected by many process parameters. In order to inspect the weld quality and detect the presence of various weld defects, different methods and systems are studied and developed. In this paper, a laser-based vision system is developed for non-destructive weld quality inspection. The vision sensor is designed based on the ...

A simple thermal-mechanical model for friction stir spot welding (FSSW) was developed to obtain similar weld performance for different weld tools. Use of the thermal-mechanical model and a combined approach enabled the design of weld tools for various sizes but similar qualities. Three weld tools for weld radii of 4, 5, and 6 mm were made to join 6061-T6 aluminum sheets. Performance evaluations...

Observation of the weld pool provides an effective path to understand and control the welding process. Observation data also attribute to the validation of numerical models, which helps researchers to analyze and evaluate the welding process. Extensive research has been conducted to provide in situ monitoring of the weld pool. The arc sensor was one of the first few sensors that was adopted for...

This paper develops a vision-based neuro-fuzzy system to control the weld joint penetration in Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) of thin sheets. To this end, a camera equipped with a specially designed composite light-filter is used to observe the weld pool from the topside of the workpiece so that comparatively distinct images of the weld pool are obtained. As the Backside weld Width (BW) reflec...