Ultrasound in non-destructive testing – EMATs, magnetostriction and seeing with liquid crystals

Ultrasound is widely used in non-destructive testing (NDT) and condition monitoring to check for defects and corrosion before they become safety critical. As the existing infrastructure is ageing, and new large-scale infrastructure developments including power generation facilities such as wind farms are being built, these all will need to be monitored for integrity. The existing NDT technology will not be able to sustain the accelerating demand for testing and health monitoring, hence new, disruptive inspection and monitoring approaches need to be developed.

This webinar will discuss the use of ultrasound in NDT and condition monitoring, considering modern challenges in inspection. Guided waves can significantly speed up testing and provide valuable information about corrosion and other defects in assets such as pipes, vessels, or rails. New developments in electromagnetic acoustic transducers suitable for robotic applications and in magnetostrictive patch transducers for structural health monitoring will be discussed. Furthermore, the talk will describe a novel approach in visualisation of guided waves and ultrasound, using passive sensors based on liquid crystals.



Bio:

Oksana has recently joined Warwick University’s School of Engineering as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests cover ultrasonics, materials characterisation and soft matter. She focuses on solving industrially relevant problems in non-destructive testing through a variety of methods including novel approaches to thermography, electromagnetic and magnetostrictive acoustic transducers and laser ultrasonics. She is also developing sensitive soft matter - based film sensors for ultrasound visualisation.

Oksana did her PhD in Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She worked as a Research Associate in the Photonics and Sensors as well as Nanomaterials and Spectroscopy groups at Cambridge and then joined the Department of Physics at the university of Warwick as a Research / Senior Research Fellow in the Ultrasonics Group.