Ultrasound imaging of stress corrosion cracking

The formation of cracks in a corrosive environment in combination with tensile stresses is known as stress corrosion cracking. This type of degradation mechanism can lead to sudden and rapid failure of a structure. In a colony of cracks, it is desired to determine the position and depth of individual cracks in order to assess the remaining strength of the structure. In the present paper, acoustical imaging using inverse wave field extrapolation is applied to a pipe coupon exhibiting stress corrosion cracking. It is shown that individual cracks in the colony can be identified and sized. Aside from the direct path into the pipe wall, reflections from the inner and outer surface of the sample are used to determine accurately the extent of the surface-breaking cracks within the material. The images obtained during a scan can be stacked together to provide a three-dimensional visualization of the colony of cracks.