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Non-Destructive Evaluation

Non-Destructive Evaluation

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Non-Destructive Evaluation
Application Areas
Energy

Energy

Application Areas

Energy
Aerospace
Health
Infrastructure

The UK Research Centre in NDE (RCNDE) has many industrial members in the energy sector: EDF, Rolls-Royce, Shell, BP, Petrobras, RWE, E-ON. Much of our research has applications in this area and we have active links with most of these companies.

Energy Areas

Nuclear
Oil and Gas
Power Industry

Nuclear

Quantitative NDE originated in the nuclear industry and many challenges remain, both in existing and new plant. We have a variety of projects on bulk and guided wave ultrasound and electromagnetic techniques with Rolls-Royce, British Nuclear Group, SERCO Assurance, BNFL/Nexia and British Energy. We are also members of the EPSRC funded PROMINENT programme and the Imperial College Nuclear Group.

Nuclear Projects

Guided Wave Permanently Installed Monitoring Systems on Complex Nuclear Components

Development of Methods for Monitoring of Fatigue Degradation in Steel Components

Super Resolution Array Imaging of Small Embedded Defects within Safety-Critical Components

High temperature inspection

Improvements in ultrasonic inspection techniques for high-density polyethylene pipe joints

Ultrasonic Inspection of Highly Scattering Materials

Development of FE techniques for the ultrasonic inspection of surface-breaking defects

Integrated Ultrasonic Imaging for Inspection of Near-Surface Defects in Safety-Critical Components

Nuclear Image

Oil and Gas

The group’s work on long range guided wave inspection has been particularly applied in the oil and gas sector via the spin-out company Guided Ultrasonics Ltd. We have several projects on potential advances in this technology and also on electromagnetic methods in collaboration with the oil industry. Recent work on wireless corrosion/erosion monitoring is being commercialised by the group's most recent spin-out company, Permasense Ltd.

Oil and Gas Projects

Guided Wave Tomography

Full-Waveform Inversion of Guided-Wave Measurements

Guided Waves Interaction with Cracks of Complex Morphology

Ultrasonic Characterisation of Heavy Fuel Oil

The long range inspection of pipework

Radiography of Sub-sea Pipelines

Improved Guided wave inspection of buried and coated structures

Area Monitoring using Ultrasonic Guided Wave

Electromagnetic NDE Techniques for Pipeline Inspection and Monitoring

Improvements in EMAT Sensitivity

Guided wave tomography for thickness mapping

Oil and Gas Image

Power Industry

Long range guided wave inspection has a variety of potential applications in the power industry, for example the detection of longitudinal cracks in pipes, that require advances over the techniques previously developed for the oil and gas sector. We are involved in this area, and also in the inspection and monitoring of structures at high temperatures (>500^oC).