EngD student, 2018 intake

University: University of Strathclyde

Sponsoring company: National Nuclear Laboratories

Background

Undergraduate Masters in Aero Mechanical Engineering at University of Strathclyde, graduating in June 2015. Industrial experience as a Mechanical Engineer at Thales UK developing, maintaining and qualifying a range of opto-mechanical EO-IR sensors (lasers and cameras).

Automated Quantitative Inspection of Nuclear Canisters and Assets.

Traditionally the inspection of nuclear containers is highly challenging, time-consuming and expensive due to the complexities and logistics of the environment and process. This project seeks to investigate the potential for in-situ, ex-situ and at the point of manufacture automated techniques for quantitative inspection of such containers to allow meaningful decisions to be taken on their future.

To achieve this overarching aim requires a fundamental step-change in NDE sensor and probe design, deployment and data processing. Multiple modality inspection sensors will be considered including ultrasonic, magnetic and visual to achieve desired coverage, defect resolution and internal imaging. Data-fusion of such sensor approaches will be investigated to enhance the Probability of Detection (POD) of potential defects and degradation over time. Position and pose localisation strategies will be critical to ensure the potential for accurate defect location estimation and repeatability of measurement. The techniques developed must have potential for automated deployment across a variety of assets and hence must be accommodating of changes in operating environment and probe deployment position. Digital recording, recognition and processing strategies will be considered to ensure degradation over time can be accurately measured, detected and reported.