Following peer review by members of the academic community and a vote by the RCNDE Full industrial members, the RCNDE management team has recommended that industrial funding be awarded to three projects:

1. Prof. Paul Wilcox, University of Bristol: “Explainability, Interpretability and Uncertainty Quantification for Machine Learning in NDE”.
2. Dr Stewart Haslinger, University of Liverpool & Imperial College London: “MUSICA: Modelling UltraSonic Inspection of Challenging defects for Automated analysis”.
3. Dr Frederic Cegla, Imperial College London: “Assessment of mixed inspection and monitoring strategies”.

These projects will become part of RCNDE’s Core research programme, and help maintain a healthy portfolio of high-calibre industrially relevant research projects. The kick-off date is currently projected for early 2023, with further details to be announced soon.

Congratulations to the successful research teams, and thank you to everyone who participated in the decision-making process!

Caroline Bull, RCNDE Director, attended the American Society of Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Annual Conference, which was held at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Centre in Nashville between 31 October – 3 November 2022.

With over 2000 conference attendees and 150 exhibitors, RCNDE were represented on the BINDT stand. Associate member Peak NDT’s exhibition stand featured work on robotics undertaken by TWI, also an RCNDE associate member.

Peak NDT-sponsored CDT student Nina Sweeny, who is working with Charles MacLeod at Strathclyde, gave a presentation on ‘Towards Ultrasonic driven in-process gas tungsten arc welding inspection and process control’.

As well as attending the conference, Caroline was invited to a meeting of the International NDE community meeting with RCNDE Associate members JSNDI.

As a member of the ASNT Women in NDT Council, she was invited to a panel session of diversity and inclusion in NDT that was attended by conference delegates. Caroline presented on unconscious bias and along with her co-panellists answered questions from the audience on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Featured image shows RCNDE Director, Caroline Bull (right) at the Peak NDT stand with Simon Parke of Peak NDT (centre) and Ross Hanna of TWI Wales (left), who was demonstrating his equipment on the stand.

We are pleased to bring to the attention of the NDE community some upcoming UK workshops organised by the UK Forum for Engineering Structural Integrity (FESI). Please find details of the events below:

Creep Cavity Initiation and Early Growth Leading to Failure in Metals and Alloys
11 October 2022, St Anne’s College, Oxford, UK

Pitting Corrosion and Pit-to-Crack Transition: Recent Advances and Remaining Challenges
25 October 2022, University Of Bristol, Bristol, UK

EAC Workshop 2022: Future Challenges in Assessing Environmentally Assisted Cracking in Plant
22 November 2022, Birchwood Park, Warrington, UK

For more information, please visit https://www.fesi.org.uk/events/

The new series of RCNDE Technical Workshops was inaugurated by a very successful first workshop on the topic of ‘Robotics and Automated Deployment’, which took place on Wednesday 21 September. Representatives from Jacobs, Sellafield, Evident, and AOS-TPAC presented their companies’ research and technological advances to an audience of RCNDE associate and full industrial members. Participants had the chance to ask questions on the potential of new technologies, discuss the challenges in adopting and implementing them, and exchange ideas on their uses and the benefits they can yield.

The Technical Workshops series was conceived as a forum for our industrial members to showcase innovative technology-focused research in NDE and foster member-to-member collaboration. Members that are interested in presenting a demo or attending upcoming workshops are welcome to register their interest by emailing us. Topic proposals for future workshops are particularly welcome.

RCNDE members can access recordings of the presentations in the Members’ area of the website: https://rcnde.ac.uk/members/seminars-workshops-special-interest-topics/

A warm thank you to our presenters for their excellent demos and to all the participants for their insight and ideas!

This year’s award announcements at the BINDT Annual Conference 2022 saw several RCNDE members receive some of the organisations most high-profile awards.

Professor Tony Peyton (Manchester University) received the prestigious Roy Sharpe Prize in recognition of a significant contribution through research and development in NDT to the benefit of industry or society. Tony made the opening plenary lecture on a wide range of electromagnetic topics that have been used in industry and for security.

Professor Mike Lowe, Peter Huthwaite, Richard Craster (Imperial College), Stewart Haslinger (Liverpool University) and Fan Shi (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) received the John Grimwade medal for the best paper published by a member of BINDT in Insight during 2021. Their paper was entitled “Prediction of reflection amplitudes for ultrasonic inspection of rough planar defects”.

Last but not least, Dr Colin Brett, RCNDE Technology Director, received the Anne Birt Award, intended “to recognise significant contributions to technology innovation, technology transfer or technology strategy in the field of NDT over a period of at least 5-10 years.” Colin has 35 years of experience in the power generation industry working within the NDE and Structural Integrity fields for the CEGB, PowerGen, E.ON and Uniper. The award recognises the breadth and depth of his experience and continuing contributions to the sector. The award was accompanied by a prize lecture by Colin, titled “Inspection challenges from a career in the power generation industry”.

Congratulations to all awardees!

Featured image shows Dr Colin Brett delivering his Anne Birt prize lecture.

Members of the RCNDE management team and researchers from partner Universities became ambassadors for RCNDE and the NDE sector by participating in the BINDT NDT 2022 conference and Material Testing Exhibition that took place 6-8 September at Telford. A formidable combination of lectures, conference presentations, and live demonstrations garnered much interest from attendees and sowed the seeds of future collaborations.

The successful RCNDE Showcase, an integral part of BINDT Conference running over all three days, highlighted the excellent work of academics and students from RCNDE’s University partners. Presentations on ultrasonic, eddy current, electromagnetic methods; novel techniques; materials characterisation; NDE4.0 and future technologies generated interesting questions and follow up discussions.

RCNDE’s academic partners raised interest in new techniques and technologies through demonstrations as part of the Materials Testing Exhibition. The exhibition also provided an opportunity for many of the businesses represented to discuss the benefits of RCNDE membership with us and we hope to be welcoming them soon.

Caroline Bull, RCNDE Director, would like to thank all those who made the RCNDE Showcase and Exhibition such a success.

Featured image shows the MT Exhibition demo from Strathclyde University at the RCNDE stand.

The RCNDE is organising a host of events in the coming months, ranging from a research showcase to technical workshops and more. Please find full details below:

RCNDE showcase event at BINDT Annual conference – 06-08 September, The International Centre, Telford.

RCNDE Board Meeting – 14 September, online.

RCNDE Technical Workshops: Robotics and Automated Deployment – 21 September, online.

IWG meeting and Strategy workshop – 18 October, Nottingham (venue TBC).

We are looking forward to seeing you there.

The RCNDE is delighted to welcome Caroline Bull as its new Director. Following her appointment as Director Elect in January, Caroline has been working alongside departing RCNDE Director Professor Robert Smith and the rest of the team to gain an understanding of the centre’s ongoing work and plans for the future.

Caroline is bringing to the post her extensive industry and leadership experience, which includes her continuing role as the Product Engineering Technical Outreach Lead for nuclear defence experts AWE. Her grounding in the fields NDT and engineering started age 17 at Harwell Laboratory and, following her studies in Physics and Maths at the University of Reading under UKAEA sponsorship, has led to a long and successful trajectory in the industry.

During 35 years of industry involvement, Caroline has participated in research programmes, performed NDT inspections at home and abroad, and assumed a series of leadership positions, including the presidency of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) in January 2017. In addition to supporting BINDT activities as a Past President, Caroline is a member of BINDT Council, the NDT Technical Committee, NDE 4.0 Working Group, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group and the Engineering Council Working Group. She is also a member of the newly formed UK NDT Leadership Forum Executive and of the American Society of NDT (ASNT) Women in NDT Council supporting equality, diversity and inclusion.

Caroline officially assumed her duties as RCNDE Director in July 2022, and is already utilising her breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, as well as her keen interest in research and innovation, to steer the RCNDE in new and exciting directions.

We would like to warmly thank Robert for his work as RCNDE Director over the past three and a half years, and for successfully navigating the changing landscape of the relationship between our research and industry. Thank you, Robert, and welcome Caroline!

The RCNDE board members have agreed to offer a new category of RCNDE industrial membership for not-for-profit or national laboratory-type organisations. 

Such organisations are anticipated to have roles related to fulfilling national objectives for steering and supporting the NDE research and technology translation in a specific sector or across multiple sectors. These organisations are expected not to be explicitly deriving commercial benefit from their activities, and they may enable RCNDE to access to other funding opportunities, advice on industrial vision & research direction, strategic links and access to collaborative technology-transfer programmes.

Qualifying organisations for this membership category would be an RCNDE board member with full voting rights, and would benefit from a 50% discount on the standard annual membership fee for full industrial members. The consideration of an organisation for this membership category would involve assessing an organisation’s characteristics against a non-prescriptive set of criteria. These criteria will include the type of organisation e.g. not-for profit; charity; regulator/standards organisation; trade association; Catapult centre (or equivalent non-UK organisation), the amount of public funding received and the organisation not needing free rights to use RCNDE Core IP.

Following the overall assessment against such criteria, the RCNDE management team would decide whether to recommend that the RCNDE Management Board considers the case for this membership category and makes a vote on the decision.

If you think your company could fit into this new membership category and want to know more about the process, please contact RCNDE’s Centre Manager Maria Arias (maria.arias@bristol.ac.uk)

Workshop on structural integrity, NDT and CM requirements for Industry 4.0

The event hosted by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT), in collaboration with the UK Research Centre in Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE), the UK Forum for Engineering Structural Integrity (FESI), The Alan Turing Institute and The Welding Institute took place in the Manufacturing technology Centre (MTC) on 18-19 May 2022. It saw the NDE, SHM and CM communities working together toward defining their collective requirements for Industry 4.0. A mix of presentations, breakout sessions and discussions that provided a valuable insight to all present about how to realise the potential of Industry 4.0. and what can these communities contribute to it. 

A full downloadable report is now being prepared and will be available at the BINDT’s website shortly.

RCNDE May meetings took place in Bristol in the week commencing 9th May and have been described as an overall success by all attendees! After more than two years without in person meetings, everyone was pleased to reconnect and go back to face to face interactions making the full week of meetings a vibrant and exciting environment for all involved. Despite being a long week for many, everyone left wanting more!

The series of meetings started with the Industrial Working group meeting and visit to the University of Bristol lab on the Monday. These visits are a great opportunity for our university partners to showcase their facilities and give the industrial members a good flavour of what they can do in the lab. On the other hand, the industrial members provide the hosting university group with an overview of the needs and requirements for NDE technologies in their respective sectors. 

Tuesday’s meeting moved to the Watershed Cinema in Bristol and saw the students of the Quantitative NDE and FIND CDT providing a brilliant overview of their projects. Due to the high number of students, two cinema rooms and two parallel sessions were required. It was a pleasure to see both sessions were well attended and participants were very impressed with the quality of the PhD projects and students.

Wednesday was the big day with the RCNDE academic community providing a “tour de force” of the current research projects of the Centre. Once more, participants were highly impressed by the quality, robustness and inspiring research and all the presenters received excellent feedback. To finish the day in style, the centre organised a top-class dinner to mark the retirement of one of RCNDE’s founders, Prof Peter Cawley.  

The last meeting of the week was the Board meeting where Board members were informed of the latest news and initiatives by the RCNDE Management Team.

A busy week for many, but a successful one for all those involved!

Planning for RCNDE’s series of meetings in May 2022 is underway. Please note that they will be face-to-face in Bristol (we are very pleased to have the chance to reconnect in person), and details are as follows:

– Industrial Working Group, Monday 9 May

– CDT day, Tuesday 10 May

– Annual review, Wed 11 May

– Board meeting, Thurs 12 May.

We are delighted to announce that Caroline Bull has been appointed as the next RCNDE Director, taking over from Professor Robert Smith. In order to ensure a smooth transition, Caroline is RCNDE Director Elect with immediate effect, taking over the role of Director by September 2022. In the interim Caroline will work with Robert and the team to gain an understanding of RCNDE’s priorities (particularly in relation to offering added value to members and influencing Industry 4.0) in addition to developing ideas for the future.

Caroline, who will continue to work as the Product Engineering Technical Outreach Lead for nuclear defence experts AWE, brings over 35 years’ of industrial experience in addition to a strong technical background in NDT and engineering. Her extensive leadership experience – including connections to the national and international NDT communities, academia, industry and a multitude of professional engineering organisations – made her the ideal candidate for the role of RCNDE Director.

Since starting her career at the age of 17 at UKAEA and studying Physics and Maths at the University of Reading under UKAEA sponsorship, Caroline has participated in many research programmes and travelled the world completing NDT inspections, both on and offshore. She was registered as a Chartered Engineer in 2003 and became President of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) in January 2017. As the now ex-President, Caroline continues to support and represent BINDT as required and is a member of BINDT Council, the NDT Technical Committee, NDE 4.0 Working Group, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group and Engineering Council Working Group. She is also a member of the American Society of NDT (ASNT) Women in NDT Group supporting equality, diversity and inclusion.

This breadth of experience and knowledge, together with a keen interest in enabling innovation, research and knowledge transfer will ensure that Caroline is well-placed to lead the RCNDE in the future.

Finally, we wish to thank Robert for his vision and leadership, and for steering the ‘RCNDE ship’ over the last three and a half years. He has played a significant part in ensuring that we remain relevant and forward-thinking, particularly in relation to on-going work to transition our research into industry and to influence the strategic direction of the NDE sector. He has also been pivotal in supporting our transition to a stand-alone, sustainable, ongoing partnership between industry and academia, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it brought.

First workshop on NDT, CM and SHM requirements for civil structures

28-29 June 2022 *previously advertised as 8-9 March*
Institute of Civil Engineers, London, UK

The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT), in collaboration with the UK Research Centre in Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE) and the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA), has scheduled a workshop considering requirements for civil structures.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together regulators, insurers, designers, civil and structural engineers, contractors, operators and owners of civil structures with the non-destructive testing (NDT), condition monitoring (CM) and structural health monitoring (SHM) communities to determine and document both current and future requirements for inspection, monitoring and asset management.

For more information, go to the BINDT website.

Workshop on structural integrity, NDT and CM requirements for Industry 4.0

18-19 May 2022
Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), Pilot Way, Ansty Business Park, Coventry CV7 9JU, UK

The RCNDE community may be interested in this event hosted by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT), in collaboration with the UK Research Centre in Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE), the UK Forum for Engineering Structural Integrity (FESI), The Alan Turing Institute and The Welding Institute.

“Industry 4.0 will completely change the production and operation of nearly every manufactured item in the developed world. Intelligent systems will enhance and sometimes supersede human decision-making in production and operation, and industry will no longer be limited by human cognitive ability. Outcomes will be higher productivity, lower through-life costs and greater safety and reliability, benefitting industry, the global economy and everyone who uses machines or travels in vehicles.” 

For more information, go to the BINDT website.

FULL MEMBERS: Funding for full members to attend this event is available from the RCNDE – contact us by email if you are a full member and would like to attend.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS: A preferential rate is available to RCNDE associate members – go to the BINDT website for details.

We are pleased to welcome to RCNDE two new academic partners: The Universities of Liverpool and Southampton.

University of Liverpool

Research at the University of Liverpool spans many engineering disciplines, and specialises in fields of interest to the RCNDE membership including aerodynamics, flight dynamics and simulation, experimental and computational fluid dynamics, experimental mechanics, structural and functional materials, laser and additive manufacturing, biomaterials and biomechanics, and nuclear engineering.

Dr William Christian, from the Mechanical, Materials & Aerospace Engineering department, will be leading the engagement between the University of Liverpool and RCNDE. Will’s research is focused on the characterisation of defects in structural materials using optical stress and strain measurement techniques such as digital image correlation and thermoelastic stress analysis.

University of Southampton

The University of Southampton µ-VIS X-Ray Imaging Centre combines state-of-the-art equipment with the expertise of over 40 academics to undertake cutting-edge research in high resolution X-Ray tomographic imaging. It aims to provide a holistic approach to advanced 3D (volume) imaging, supporting all steps between original domain problem/query, through to verified, publishable conclusions.

Dr Thomas Blumensath is an Associate Professor at the University of Southampton and will be the main link between the University of Southampton and RCNDE. His research focuses on fundamental signal and image processing techniques and their application to a range of scientific problems. He is particularly interested in x-ray image reconstruction and their application to Industrial imaging problems.

**IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR MEMBERS: January 2022 meetings now online**

In light of the current COVID-19 situation, please note that we have decided to hold the following meetings for members online:

– Industrial Working Group, 24 Jan 2022

– Technology Transfer Day, 25 Jan 2022, and

– 58th RCNDE Board meeting, 26 January 2022.