Abstract
Electromagnetic acoustic resonance (EMAR) is a contactless resonant method with an electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT). This method is free from extra energy losses, resulting in the measurement of intrinsic ultrasonic attenuation in solids. In this study, the EMAR was applied to detect the creep damage of a stainless steel. The material was exposed to the temperature of 973K at various stresses. We measured ultrasonic attenuation for 1-6-MHz frequency range as the creep advanced. The attenuation coefficient exhibits much larger sensitivity to the damage accumulation than the velocity. It shows a maximum around 40% of the whole life, which is interpreted as resulting from microstructural changes, especially, dislocation mobility. This is supported by TEM observations for dislocation structure. This technique has a potential to assess the damage advance and to predict the creep life of metals.
