Nondestructive Testing in Composite Materials

In this era of technological progress and given the need for welfare and safety, everything that is manufactured and maintained must comply with such needs. We would all like to live in a safe house that will not collapse on us. We would all like to walk on a safe road and never see a chasm open in front of us. We would all like to cross a bridge and reach the other side safely. We all would like to feel safe and secure when taking a plane, ship, train, or using any equipment. All this may be possible with the adoption of adequate manufacturing processes, with non-destructive inspection of final parts and monitoring during the in-service life of components. Above all, maintenance should be imperative. This requires effective non-destructive testing techniques and procedures. This Special Issue is a collection of some of the latest research in these areas, aiming to highlight new ideas and ways to deal with challenging issues worldwide. Different types of materials and structures are considered, different non-destructive testing techniques are employed with new approaches for data treatment proposed as well as numerical simulations. This can serve as food for thought for the community involved in the inspection of materials and structures as well as condition monitoring

Characterisation and probability of detection analysis of rolling contact fatigue cracks in rails using eddy current pulsed thermography

PhD ThesisWith transportation volumes continuously increasing, railway networks are now facing problems of greater axle loads and increasing vehicle speeds. The most direct consequence is the initiation of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) defects in rails, which have become safety issues for all types of railway systems and received more attention due to lack of timely examination and management. Among different RCF defects, the RCF crack probably presents the biggest hazard in rails. Detection and characterisation of RCF cracks aim to provide detailed guidelines for safety management and preventative grinding. Unfortunately, current nondestructive testing and evaluation techniques are still facing several challenges and research gaps. One outstanding challenge is the characterisation of RCF cracks under their complex geometries and clustered distributions. One major research gap is how to evaluate the probabilistic performance in crack characterisation via a proper framework. By combining the advantages of eddy current pulse excitation and infrared thermography, this thesis proposes the use of eddy current pulsed thermography (ECPT) technique to address the detection and characterisation of RCF cracks in rails. To quantitatively investigate the ECPT’s performance in crack characterisation, a performance evaluation framework based on probability of detection (POD) analysis is proposed. The major contributions of the thesis are summarised as follows: (1) implementations of three-dimensional FEM models and a lab-based ECPT system for investigating the characterisation of RCF cracks under clustered distributions and geometric influences; (2) temporal/spatial-thermal-feature-based ECPT for angular slots and RCF cracks detection and characterisation; (3) investigations into the capability and the performance of ECPT for characterising angular slots and natural RCF cracks via a POD analysis framework. The thesis concludes that the proposed feature-based ECPT system can characterise RCF cracks in both light and moderate stages. Based on feature comparison and POD evaluation, tempo-spatial-based patterns are better fits for pocket length characterisation. Temporal domain-based features show better performances for inclination angle characterisation. A spatial domain-based feature, SST, can characterise vertical depths with reasonable POD values. One tempo-spatial-based pattern at the early heating stage, IET-PCA, gives the best performance for characterising surface lengths. Still, several issues need to be further investigated in future work, such as feature selection for crack characterisation, three-dimensional reconstruction of RCF cracks, model-assisted POD frameworks for improving the effectiveness of POD analysis with a limited number of physical specimens

Nondestructive Testing Methods and New Applications

Nondestructive testing enables scientists and engineers to evaluate the integrity of their structures and the properties of their materials or components non-intrusively, and in some instances in real-time fashion. Applying the Nondestructive techniques and modalities offers valuable savings and guarantees the quality of engineered systems and products. This technology can be employed through different modalities that include contact methods such as ultrasonic, eddy current, magnetic particles, and liquid penetrant, in addition to contact-less methods such as in thermography, radiography, and shearography. This book seeks to introduce some of the Nondestructive testing methods from its theoretical fundamentals to its specific applications. Additionally, the text contains several novel implementations of such techniques in different fields, including the assessment of civil structures (concrete) to its application in medicine

Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurized Components

This conference, the tenth in a series on NDE in relation to structural integrity for nuclear and pressurized components, was held from 1st October to 3 October 2013, in Cannes, France. The scientific programme was co-produced by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Institute for Energy and Transport (EC-JRC/IET). The Conference has been coordinated by the Confédération Française pour les Essais Non Destructifs (COFREND). The first conference, under the sole responsibility of EC-JRC was held in Amsterdam, 20-22 October 1998. The second conference was locally organized by the EPRI NDE Center in New Orleans, 24-26 May 2000, the third one by Tecnatom in Seville, 14-16 November 2001, the fourth one by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing in London, 6-8 December 2004, the fifth by EPRI in San Diego, 10-12 May 2006, the sixth by Marovisz in Budapest, 8-10 October 2007, the seventh by the University of Tokyo and JAPEIC in Yokohama, the eight by DGZfP, 29 September to 1st October 2010, the ninth by Epri NDE Center, 22-24 May 2012 in Seattle. The theme of this conference series is to provide the link between the information originated by NDE and the use made of this information in assessing structural integrity. In this context, there is often a need to determine NDE performance against structural integrity requirements through a process of qualification or performance demonstration. There is also a need to develop NDE to address shortcomings revealed by such performance demonstration or otherwise. Finally, the links between NDE and structural integrity require strengthening in many areas so that NDE is focussed on the components at greatest risk and provides the precise information required for assessment of integrity. These were the issues addressed by the papers selected for the conference.JRC.F.5-Nuclear Reactor Safety Assessmen