The Advantage of Using Broad Bandwidth and Narrow Pulse TRL Probe for Ultrasonic Inspection of Austenitic Stainless Steel Welds

In austenitic stainless steel welds, the grain structure is coarse and anisotropic. When ultrasonic beam propagate in such structure , following phenomena encounter :beam deviation, serious scattering , high attenuation. So if the conventional ultrasonic probes be used, it is difficult for detecting and sizing flaws in austenitic stainless steel welds because of low signal-to noise ratio. But broad bandwidth and narrow pulse Transmitter/Receiver side-by-side L waves probe (TRL probe) can overcome these difficulties. This article will introduce the benefits of TRL probe when it be used in austenitic stainless steel welds inspection. As a validation example, the  273 mm×30 mm austenitic stainless steel pipe weld is used in this article.