rackengr,
I may be confused on the term "piping porosity". What I had called piping porosity didn't always exit to the surface to where you could visually inspect it. I found it when I would UT the joint and uncover it when the welder was cutting it out. What you are describing is what i call cluster or scattered porosity. Sorry for the confusion in terms(my bad). See Annex B for "correct definition" which states: "Piping porosity
-Elongated porosity whose major dimension lies in a direction approximately normal to the weld surface. Frequently referred to as pin holes when the porosity extends to the weld surface."
I do know that the type of porosity that you are seeing there in those welds have limits to size and frequency as you have seen, noted in Table 6.1 note(8)A,B&C of your D1.1:2002 code book. Also see the Commentary section on table 6.1 Item 8 on page 457 bottom left side of the page.
Hope I didn't cause too much confusion,
John Wright
I always have my guys fix all porosity regardless of size, but that is my choice in my shop, and not because of code. If someone in our shop is experiencing alot of porosity, I try and figure out what we are doing to cause it and make it stop. I think it reflects on our overall quality.