Addressing the Limit of Detectability of Residual Oxide Discontinuities in Friction Stir Butt Welds of Aluminum using Phased Array Ultrasound
This activity seeks to estimate a theoretical upper bound of detectability for a layer of oxide embedded in a friction stir weld in aluminum. The oxide is theoretically modeled as an ideal planar layer of aluminum oxide, oriented normal to an interrogating ultrasound beam. Experimentally-measured grain scattering level is used to represent the practical noise floor. Echoes from naturally-occurring oxides will necessarily fall below this theoretical limit, and must be above the measurement noise to be potentially detectable.