Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and evaluation has become increasingly popular across various sectors, including the energy, transportation, and healthcare sectors. This form of testing is widely used because it can assess a machine's or system's integrity without impairing its usefulness.
Here are some of the incredible places where non-destructive testing is done:
- Bridges
- Oil Rigs
- Art Installations
Bridges
Bridges are critical infrastructure and require regular inspections to ensure their safety and reliability. Non-destructive testing techniques such as ultrasonic testing, magnetic particle inspection, and radiographic testing are commonly used to inspect bridge components such as cables, decks, and support structures for any damage or defects.
Reinforced concrete is a commonly used material in constructing bridges, flyovers, and other strong structures due to its durability. However, the steel reinforcement components within these structures are susceptible to premature corrosion, which can result in significant cross-section loss. Corrosion within the confined spaces of a bridge can create stress and lead to the development of cracks, ultimately causing the concrete cover to spall.
Difficulties
It can be challenging to detect corrosion in bridges, as some of the vulnerable parts are hidden or hard to access. Moreover, some bridges face heavy traffic, making it difficult to perform a thorough inspection using traditional methods. To address this issue, non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques such as infrared thermography have become increasingly popular for regular and cost-effective bridge integrity testing. Infrared thermography can detect temperature changes, which can indicate the presence of defects like corrosion in bridge structures. This approach offers a safe, comprehensive and reliable way to test bridge integrity.
Example
Infrared thermography is used to detect bridge defects such as broken structural assemblies, liquid/water ingress.
Pro
One of the advantages of infrared thermography is that it can assess large areas, thus saving time. Besides, unlike other testing techniques that only allow snapshots, the current infrared testing technology enables real-time recording.
Contra
Despite all the aforementioned advantages, infrared technology has one key drawback- it can give inaccurate reading. However, the inaccuracy is likely to occur only when temperature variations are extremely small.
No. 2 | Incredible Places for NDT: Oil Rigs
- Non-destructive testing is also crucial in the oil and gas industry. Oil rigs, also called oil platforms, require high level of integrity, thus regular checks and maintenance to ensure environmental conservation as well as efficient and safe oil mining.
- Difficulty
- Considering that petroleum is highly flammable, oil rig inspection can be a hazardous task. Even worse, too much oil build-up might create too much pressure in the oil rigs, and this may cause an explosion. Therefore, the testing and maintenance of the oil rigs requires utmost care, ensuring no damages occur as a result of the testing and nobody is exposed to the possible hazards. This is where liquid penetrant inspection come in handy.
Liquid penetrant inspection
Liquid penetrant inspection is a non-destructive testing that can be used to detect flaws like cracks, porosity and laps in oil rigs. The inspection involves drawing liquid penetrant into an oil rig surface and removing the excess surface penetrant.
Example
When oil rig drill pipe is being inspected, a liquid penetrant is drawn into the pipe’s surface, and the excess surface penetrant is removed and an indicator is produced. As a result, cracks that are even as narrow as 150 nanometers can be detected.
Pros
Liquid penetrant inspection is fast and simple to use, besides being cost-efficient.
Contra
The technique is only effective in detecting surface-breaking flaws.
No. 3 | Incredibles Place for NDT: Art Installations
- Various pieces of art are treated as valuable assets for communicating particular messages or rekindling particular memories. However, if not properly maintained, even the most valuable art installation might lose its glory if not well maintained.
- Difficulty
- The inspection of an art installation to identify the necessary maintenance is not always easy, as some defects are deep inside the art structure. In such a case, an inspector might be tempted to remove the art’s paint and cut deep into the surface of the art piece to find out the areas of concern. The approach might compromise the integrity of the art, besides being laborious.
- Ultrasonic Testing for art installation NDT
- Ultrasonic Testing, another form of non-destructive testing, is among the safest and efficient way of detecting flaws in an art installation. It accurately detects fatigue or stress-caused cracks in an art piece.
Example
The art installation located at Nash St in the CBD of Perth City was recently inspected using Ultrasonic Testing, that utilized rope access. The inspection was not only less expensive than the preciously used traditional inspection methods, but also took less time.
Pros
Ultrasonic Testing inspection is cost-effective and efficient.
Contra
It is hard to interpret signals and defects on complex structures.
Further Links:
Other methods can also discover and analyze paintings by inspecting the chemical attributes of the paint used. Read mor about it here: BAM – Testing of Art Pictures or check out the video to the right.
How to speed up?
What is the sentin EXPLORER?
Special and Incredible Places need the most efficient testing methods. For example Infrared thermography, Liquid penetrant inspection and Ultrasonic Testing can be used in places with special requirements and that are hard to reach. Companies have to choose the right testing method for their buildings, constructions, parts etc. and have to be accurate to avoid disasters.
When it comes to testing a human inspector needs to evaluate the results of images and parts. The sentin EXPLORER supports this process with optimized display tools. It can also be used to automate the evaluation process, so that you can focus on the important inspections and tasks. It makes testing reliable, precise and efficient.
The sentin EXPLORER is a tool to automate such inspection or image evaluation tasks. Our customers sometimes produce thousands of images per week, all of which have to be reliably checked. Therefore we give you the power to perform evaluations with the help of artificial intelligence and to find defects more reliably or gain new insights.
