Non-destructive examination (NDE) of composite to steel joints for in-build and through life condition monitoring in the marine environment.

已经开发了许多用于船舶结构的复合材料与钢的接头几何形状，以使得例如能够将大型复合材料上部结构结合到钢船体上。在实践中，这些接头的长度可以达到100米或更长。在建造和整个容器寿命期间确定这种接头的状况的能力对于在这种混合布置中采用复合材料结构是至关重要的。一些接头几何形状可以通过现有技术（例如热成像或超声波检测）进行检测。这些通常由覆盖在钢基底上的复合材料组成。更高的接头强度已经实现了使用几何形状，其中复合材料部分结合到一个钢通道和外部过层压。这些几何形状已被证明是不兼容的既定的无损检测technology.The项目旨在确定和开发一种方法来验证的完整性的复合材料，以钢接头在建设和通过生命的联合包括从传统的无损检测（NDE）方法掩盖了钢组件的结合面。开发的方法将在工业环境中使用，包括在船舶外部表面上。该项目提供了一个机会，发展目前最先进的无损评估技术，以揭示迄今隐藏的缺陷。该项目将探讨将新的红外/UT方法应用于这种几何形状的可行性，并确定其实用性，特别是在施工阶段。为了揭示隐藏的缺陷，必须开发新的传感器系统。将探索基于嵌入式传感器/致动器的系统，以深入探测结构并评估接头的任何退化。这是至关重要的，这样一个系统有最小的影响，关节的完整性和该项目的一个关键部分将是建立故障包络线的关节与没有集成系统。博士成功的候选人将理想地有很强的背景，在力学的复合材料，并了解目前在使用的技术，用于状态监测和无损检测结构，如船舶，飞机，桥梁和离岸结构。

A number of composite to steel joint geometries have been developed for use in ship structures to enable, for example, incorporation of large composite superstructures onto steel hulls. In practice, these joints could be up to 100m or more in length. The ability to ascertain the condition of such joints both at build and through the vessel life is critical to the adoption of composite structures in such hybrid arrangements.Some joint geometries are amenable to inspection by existing techniques such as thermography or ultrasonic inspection. These typically consist of composite material overlaying a steel substrate. Higher joint strengths have been achieved using geometries where the composite part is bonded into a steel channel and externally over-laminated. These geometries have proved to be incompatible with established non-destructive examination techniques.The project seeks to identify and develop a method of validating the integrity of a composite to steel joint both at build and through life where the joint includes bond surfaces masked from conventional non-destructive examination (NDE) methods by a steel component. The method developed will be practical for use in an industrial environment including on external ship surfaces.The project offers an opportunity to develop current state of the art non-destructive evaluation technologies to reveal hitherto hidden defects. The project will address the feasibility of applying novel infra-red/UT approaches to such geometries and establish their usefulness particularly in the construction stage. To reveal the hidden defects a novel sensor system must be developed. A system based on embedded sensors/actuators will be explored to probe deep into the structure and assess any degradation of the joint. It is essential that such a system has minimum impact on the joint integrity and a key part of the project will be to establish the failure envelop of joints with and without the integrated system.The successful candidate for the PhD will ideally have a strong background in mechanics of composite material and be aware of techniques that are currently in used for condition monitoring and NDE on in service structures such as ships, aircraft, bridges and off-shore structure.