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Advanced ultrasonic inspection methodologies for fitness-for-service (F.F.S) assessment of hydraulic turbines

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Abstract

This paper presents an ultrasonic inspection methodology to improve the fitness-for-service (F.F.S) assessment of hydraulic turbine runners after manufacturing or during the in-service inspection. The improvement proposed here is to apply ultrasonic array inspection techniques with an emphasis on the total focusing method (TFM) to produce data compatible with fitness-for-service methodologies. Conventional ultrasonic inspection methods based on good workmanship are mandatory for manufacturing, and in-service inspections are generally limited to surface methods such as penetrant or magnetic testing. Our previous work found serious limitations with conventional ultrasonic testing (UT) applied to the high-stress area located in the welded joint between the blade and the band. Undetected flaws will likely remain in a weld after fabrication, which can reduce the component’s service life. Our work is centered on a real turbine runner using various ultrasonic array configurations to characterize detected flaws left after fabrication. According to an evaluation of a Francis turbine runner, our results suggest that a dedicated TFM transducer with passive axis focusing and encoded inspection results in a higher detection rate, more accurate flaw definition, and more accurate sizing for the fitness-for-service (F.F.S) assessment of hydraulic turbine runners.

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Data availability

All the datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely are presented here. Upon request, all relevant raw data will be freely available to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Yves Tremblay and Yvan Lessard, who developed techniques to measure the ligament from the weld fillet and provided the data. Additionally, we would like to express our gratitude to Edward Ginzel and Martin Gagnon for their consistent support and valuable contributions to our technical discussions.

Funding

This study is financially supported under the MITACS accelerate program in collaboration with the Institute de recherch d’Hydro-Quebec (IREQ). The corresponding author is also financially supported by the “oNDuty!” program. oNDuTy! is an initiative developed under the Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) of the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (http://www.ondutycanada.ca/ (accessed on 19 June 2023)).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. École de Technologie Supérieure, Montréal, QC, H3C 1K3, Canada

    Mohammad Ebrahim Bajgholi & Martin Viens

  2. Institut de Recherche d’Hydro-Québec (IREQ), Varennes, QC, J3X 1S1, Canada

    Gilles Rousseau & Denis Thibault

Authors
  1. Mohammad Ebrahim Bajgholi
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  2. Gilles Rousseau
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Contributions

Conceptualization, M. E. B.; formal analysis, M. E. B.; funding acquisition, D. T.; investigation, G. R.; methodology, M. E. B. and G. R; software, M. E. B.; supervision, M. V.; validation, G. R.; writing—original draft, M. E. B.; writing—review and editing, G. R., D. T., and M. V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Ebrahim Bajgholi.

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Bajgholi, M.E., Rousseau, G., Viens, M. et al. Advanced ultrasonic inspection methodologies for fitness-for-service (F.F.S) assessment of hydraulic turbines. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 129, 2621–2633 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-12498-4

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