Papers by Author: Patrick Bouteille

Abstract: When a material is under mechanical load, the stresses modify the velocity of acoustic waves. This consists in acoustoelastic effect. This property can be exploited for stress measurement in the material itself when the stress concerns the surface of the material, or in the bulk material, as in bolts. The ultrasonic bolt tightening control allows knowledge of preload stress in screws. The accuracy is much better than in the case of torque wrench. In fact, the use of this mechanical-based measurement equipment leads to uncertainties due to random resistant torques, induced by mechanical manufacturing tolerances. The ultrasonic measurement of the pre-load gives the information about the tension inside of the bolt, independently of mechanical uncertainties. This consists in an in-situ measurement. More, in some cases, the ultrasonic method allows knowledge of the preload on bolts already tightened, without untightening. This method is called bi-wave method, and has many connections with birefringent method. Examples of application of the method are presented about the differential mode case, which is largely known and industrialized, and in the case of bi-wave method, which lead to several on site applications, performed by CETIM with a prototype equipment.

Abstract: Welding, which is a largely used process in the mechanical manufacturing, well known to induce high-level residual stresses. The level of residual stresses is of great importance for the lifetime of welded components used in mechanical engineering industry. The use of the ultrasonic method for the evaluation of the residual stresses is based on the acoustoelastic effect, which refers to the change in velocity of the acoustic waves propagating in a strained solid. In the case of welding, the microstructure modifications observed in the heat affected zone (HAZ) and the melted zone (MZ) also induce variations of the velocity of the acoustic waves. The superposition of the two effects, stresses and microstructure, results in over-estimating the levels of stresses. This work which was completed in collaboration with CETIM is a contribution to this problem. The experimental study was carried out on P460HLE and P265 steels welded sheets. The results obtained by the ultrasonic Lcr wave technique were compared with those obtained by the hole drilling technique. This work confirms the possibility of evaluating the residual stresses induced by welding using the ultrasonic method.