GREEN CDT: Structural damage assessment using infrared detectors in fusion environments

在计划中的核聚变发电厂中，面向等离子体的组件在使用中将经历显著的结构和功能退化。提出的等离子体表面组件的检查和维护方法依赖于定期检查间隔的建立，这需要延长工厂停机时间，因此成本很高。容器内检查的频率将受到等离子体组件寿命估计的严重影响，等离子体组件寿命是所有容器内组件中最低的。这表明迫切需要开发面向等离子体组件的结构健康监测系统，该系统可以在不关闭工厂的情况下识别和跟踪材料退化，同时提供在组件故障的最早迹象中发出计划外维护信号的能力。本课题提出利用红外探测器进行结构健康监测。红外探测器通常用于核聚变容器诊断；然而，它们的使用仅限于测量表面温度和热负荷。最近，在航空航天工业中使用红外传感器进行结构健康监测方面取得了可喜的进展。利物浦大学的伊安·帕特森和威廉·克里斯蒂安所做的工作已经证明了自动识别损伤和跟踪红外和视觉传感器获取的数据领域的能力。因此，利用红外探测器对核聚变发电厂等离子体组件进行原位损伤检测具有未开发的潜力。

Plasma facing components in planned fusion powerplants will experience significant structural and functional degradation in service. The proposed approach for inspection and maintenance of plasma facing components relies on the establishment of periodic inspection intervals, which are costly as they require extended plant outages. The frequency of in-vessel inspections will be heavily influenced by estimates of plasma facing component lifetimes, which are amongst the lowest of all in-vessel components. This dictates an urgent need for the development of structural health monitoring systems for plasma facing components, which can identify and track material degradation without the need for plant shutdown, while providing the ability to signal unplanned maintenance at the earliest sign of component failure.In this project it is proposed to use infrared detectors for structural health monitoring. Infrared detectors are routinely deployed in fusion vessel diagnostics; however, their use is limited to measurement of surface temperatures and heat loads. Recently, there has been promising work on the use of infrared sensors for structural health monitoring in the aerospace industry. Work conducted by Eann Patterson and William Christian at the University of Liverpool has demonstrated the ability to automate damage identification and tracking fields of data acquired with infrared and visual sensors. Hence, there is an untapped potential for utilising infrared detectors for in-situ damage detection in plasma facing components in fusion powerplants.