Skip to main content
Log in

An end-to-end welding defect detection approach based on titanium alloy time-of-flight diffraction images

  • Published:
Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The weld defect recognition of titanium alloy is of great significance for ensuring the safety and reliability of equipment. This study proposes a method based on the enlighten faster region-based convolutional neural network (EFRCNN) to recognize titanium alloy weld defects. First, by designing defect test blocks and using probes with different frequencies, a dataset of time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) weld defect detections is constructed. Next, to overcome the problems of high data noise and low recognition accuracy, a parallel series multi-scale feature information fusion mechanism and a channel domain attention strategy are designed, and a deep learning network model based on the faster region-based convolution neural network (Faster R-CNN) is constructed. Finally, the proposed method is verified by the TOFD test data of titanium alloy welds. The results show that the proposed method can achieve a defect type recognition accuracy of more than 92%, especially in detecting cracks or a lack of fusion.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and material

The TOFD data used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

The software application used in this study is described in the text.

Abbreviations

ANN:

Artificial neural network

BE:

Back-wall echo

BP:

Back-propagation

CFBP:

Cascade feed-forward back-propagation

CF-RW:

Channel feature reweighting

CR:

Crack

EFRCNN:

Enlighten faster region-based convolutional neural network

Faster R-CNN:

Faster region-based convolutional neural network

IOU:

Intersection over union

LF:

Lack of fusion

LP:

Lack of penetration

LW:

Later wave

NDT:

Non-destructive testing

NMS:

Non-maximum suppression

PAUT:

Phased array ultrasonic testing

PO:

Porosity

RMSE:

Root mean squared error

RNEF:

ResNet-50 extraction feature

ROI:

Region of interest

RPN:

Region proposal network

RT:

Radiographic testing

SGD:

Stochastic gradient descent

SI:

Slag inclusion

TDW:

Tip diffracted wave

TOFD:

Time-of-flight diffraction

UT:

Ultrasonic testing

ZSNF:

Z-score normalization and fusion

References

Download references

Funding

This paper was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFF0210502), Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (Grant No. 2019JM-214), Research and Application of the TOFD Detection Technology for Fusion Welded Butt Joint of Titanium Pressure Equipment (2019KY05), and the Research and Development Project of the TOFD Auxiliary Recognition System for Detecting Weld Defects in Spherical Tank (SXTJKJXM-202003). The funder had no role in experimental design, model establishment, data analysis, manuscript writing, or decisions to submit articles for publication.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

ZZ methodology, manuscript drafting, conceptualization, manuscript revision, experimental data curation, manuscript review, and supervision. HJ methodology, manuscript drafting, conceptualization, manuscript revision, experimental data curation, and manuscript review. DY experimental data curation and manuscript review. JG experimental data curation and manuscript review. QW supervision. XW supervision. JW supervision. YW supervision. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hongquan Jiang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhi, Z., Jiang, H., Yang, D. et al. An end-to-end welding defect detection approach based on titanium alloy time-of-flight diffraction images. J Intell Manuf 34, 1895–1909 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-021-01905-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-021-01905-w

Keywords

Navigation