Non-destructive evaluation of weld discontinuity in steel tubes by gamma ray CT

Weld discontinuity in steel tubes was investigated and dimensioned in a data analysis sequence. The correlation matrix, cosine distance and hierarchical cluster were applied as multivariate data processing in this analysis. Welded rings of 9236 mm3 were scanned in gamma ray CT in test tubes and compared with steel base and references. The discontinuity volume detected in the welded rings was assessed based on the pixel volume in data sampling. By modeling gamma ray trajectories and rotation angles in CT scanning, a discontinuity of 0.3 mm was determined and a limit detection of 23 mm3 was obtained.