NDT for high-value manufacturing of composites

无损检测（NDT）支撑着英国制造业的大部分，特别是高价值和专业复合材料制造业，英国正致力于大幅扩大其市场份额。复合材料学术专家、制造商和复合材料组件的最终用户都同意，复合材料无损检测的阶段性变化需要最大限度地提高高性能复合材料的减重效益，并确保英国能够在未来的复合材料制造中积极竞争。英国在复合材料和无损检测领域的高学术排名和工业基础为建立一个专门从事复合材料无损检测的英国学术研究小组提供了一个引人注目的机会，旨在保证制造质量和工艺优化。该制造奖学金将在布里斯托大学建立这样一个小组，布里斯托大学在地理上处于航空航天制造区域的中心位置，在组织上与国家复合材料中心（NCC）和英国无损评估研究中心（RCNDE）联系在一起。通过与布里斯托尔大学的两个学术团体——超声波和无损检测、先进复合材料创新与科学中心（ACCIS）——以及NCC及其工业合作伙伴的合作，该奖学金将展示专注的、与工业相关的学术研究如何满足这种制造需求，并为英国复合材料制造业带来快速效益。经过29年与复合材料无损检测相关的研发经验，我已被学术界和实业家公认为该主题的国际权威。因此，这个新小组的世界级研究地位是一个为期五年的奖学金的现实目标，通过从一系列来源吸引未来的资金，为该小组的扩张奠定了良好的地位。但是，由于各向异性、非均匀、层状复合结构对任何询问场的响应和修改方式，该领域的研究挑战是显著的。因此，工作计划包括开发模型和新型反演算法的基础任务，以及将这些任务应用于英国复合材料制造商生产的复杂结构的任务。该计划的其他特别之处是过程中和预处理复合材料的无损检测工作包，并将无损检测信息与材料模型和结构完整性理念相结合-一种使用先进的无损3d表征方法的整体方法，使复合材料制造业受益。其结果将是优化更轻重量的结构，减少废料，减少制造阶段的维修，更多地使用非高压灭菌器和更低成本的制造方法。

Non-destructive testing (NDT) underpins much of the UK's manufacturing industry, particularly the high-value and specialist composite-manufacturing industry in which the UK is aiming to significantly expand its market share. Academic composites experts, manufacturers and end-users of composite components all agree that a step change in NDT of composites is required to maximise the weight-saving benefits of high-performance composites and ensure the UK can compete aggressively in future composites manufacturing. The UK's high academic ranking and industrial base in the areas of composites and NDT offer a compelling opportunity for the establishment of a UK-based academic research group specialising in the NDT of composites and aimed at assurance of manufacturing quality and process optimisation. This Manufacturing Fellowship would establish such a group at the University of Bristol, which is ideally positioned both geographically - in the heart of the aerospace manufacturing region - and organisationally, being linked with the National Composites Centre (NCC) and the UK Research Centre for Non-destructive Evaluation (RCNDE). In collaboration with two academic groups at Bristol - Ultrasonics and NDT, and the Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science (ACCIS) - and the NCC with its industrial partners, the fellowship will demonstrate how focused, industrially relevant, academic research can meet this manufacturing need and bring rapid benefit to the UK composites manufacturing industry. After 29 years of experience in R&D related to the NDT of composites, I have been recognised as an international authority on the subject amongst academics and industrialists alike. World-class research status for this new group is therefore a realistic objective for a five-year fellowship, positioning the group well for expanding by attracting future funding from a range of sources. But the research challenges are significant in this field, due primarily to the way that the anisotropic, inhomogeneous, layered composite structures respond to, and modify, any interrogating field. For this reason the work programme includes underpinning tasks to develop models and novel inversion algorithms, as well as tasks to apply these to complex structures being produced by the UK composites manufacturers. Other particular features of the programme are the work packages on NDT for in-process and pre-process composites, and combining NDT information with materials models and structural integrity philosophies - a holistic approach to using advanced non-destructive 3D-characterisation methods to benefit the composites manufacturing industry. The result will be optimised lighter-weight structures, reduced scrap and fewer repairs at the manufacturing stage, and greater use of out-of-autoclave and lower-cost manufacturing methods.