MODELING OF ULTRASONIC PROPAGATION IN A COARSE GRAIN STRUCTURE

The metallurgical structure of centrifugally cast stainless steel components makes it difficult to ultrasonically inspect them. The centimeter‐size grains forming the macrostructure strongly affect the transmitted field and thus limit inspection capabilities. Such macrostructures can be computed using an algorithm based on the Voronoi diagrams. This mathematical tool provides good qualitative representations of equiaxed and columnar structures. By combining the Voronoi diagrams with existing CIVA functionalities such as the transmitted field computation in a heterogeneous medium using the so‐called pencil method, it is shown that some important physical phenomena responsible for inspection difficulties may be reproduced. For instance, the field distortions in phase and amplitude due to the velocity fluctuations that are caused by the large grain structures of these materials are properly described thanks to this approach. These distortions represent deviations from quantities that are usually described by...