Spatial and directional characterization of wire and arc additive manufactured aluminum alloy using phased array ultrasonic backscattering method

Pores, grains, or textures can collectively cause microstructural inhomogeneity and anisotropy in metallic materials fabricated by additive manufacturing. In this study, a phased array ultrasonic method is developed to characterize the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of wire and arc additively manufactured components by performing both beams focusing and steering. Two backscattering features, i.e., the integrated backscattering intensity and the root mean square of the backscattering signals, are employed to quantify the microstructural inhomogeneity and anisotropy, respectively. An experimental investigation is performed using an aluminum sample fabricated by wire and arc additive manufacturing. The ultrasonic measurements, performed on wire and arc additive manufactured 2319 aluminum alloy, show that the sample is inhomogeneous and weakly anisotropic. Metallography, electron backscatter diffraction, and X-ray computed tomography are used to verify the ultrasonic results. An ultrasonic scattering model is used to identify the influence of grains on the backscattering coefficient. Compared with a wrought aluminum alloy, the complex microstructure in additively manufactured material significantly influence the backscattering coefficient, and the presence of pores cannot be neglected in ultrasonic-based nondestructive evaluation for wire and arc additive manufactured metals.