Modeling and Simulation of Austenitic Welds and Coarse-grained Specimens

A very interesting paper about evaluation of commercially available nondestructive examination modelling and simulation software packages used in the nuclear industry was recently published by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). CIVA was selected for this study because it is readily available and has been used for NDE in the nuclear power plant industry. In addition to model assessment, other important aspects influencing simulation results are considered including inputs to the models, computational complexity and model run-times, material microstructures, flaw morphology, etc.

In this report, PNNL focused on the use of CIVA for evaluating models of the ultrasound beam and the use of both beam models and flaw response models for simulating coarse-grained materials in austenitic welds, dissimilar metal welds, and cast austenitic stainless steel materials.

After testing many of the features of the CIVA UT module and running multiple varied simulations, PNNL has demonstrated that CIVA is a powerful and versatile tool for ultrasonic modelling, but it should be used with good knowledge of its limitations.

You can read the full paper here.

The EXTENDE team