The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) has announced the launch of a Civil Engineering NDT Working Group for any organization interested in advancing inspection capabilities during the construction or operation phases
of the built environment, raising awareness of inspection requirements within the sector to the non-destructive testing (NDT) community, developing training and certification schemes for inspectors and providing a forum for networking between inspection end-users, academia, the supply chain, and more. The initiative arose as an action from the Workshop on NDT, CM, and SHM Requirements for Civil Structures, which was held in 2022. The workshop was organized jointly by BINDT, the UK Research Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE), the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA), and the Infrastructure Industry Innovation Partnership (i3P).
It brought together stakeholders such as regulators, insurers, designers, constructors, and operators with the NDT community to:
- Establish the requirements for improved NDT, condition monitoring (CM), and structural health monitoring (SHM) solutions for civil structures manufactured from metal, concrete, and masonry;
- Help the NDT/CM/SHM community understand the inspection problems faced by the civil engineering sector; and
- Consider the application of emerging inspection tools and technologies.
The new Civil Engineering NDT Working Group is inviting interested organizations from the civil engineering community to participate. For further information and to express an interest in participating in the work of the group, contact Josh Elliott (email: joshua.elliott@the-mtc.org) or Eleanor Flower (email: eleanor.flower@bindt.org).
About BINDT
The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) is a UK-based professional engineering institution working to promote the advancement of the science and practice of non-destructive testing (NDT), condition monitoring (CM), diagnostic engineering, and all other materials and quality testing disciplines. Internationally recognized, it is concerned with the education, training, and certification of its members and all those engaged in NDT and CM, and through its publications and annual conferences and events it disseminates news of the latest advances in the science and practice of the subjects. For further information about the Institute and its activities, visit http://www.bindt.org
What are NDT and CM?
Non-destructive testing is the branch of engineering concerned with all methods of detecting and evaluating flaws in materials. Flaws can affect the serviceability of a material or structure, so NDT is important in guaranteeing safe operation as well as in quality control and assessing plant life. The flaws may be cracks or inclusions in welds and castings or variations in structural properties, which can lead to a loss of strength or failure in service. The essential feature of NDT is that the test process itself produces no deleterious effects on the material or structure under test. The subject of NDT has no clearly defined boundaries; it ranges from simple techniques such as the visual examination of surfaces, through the well-established methods of radiography, ultrasonic testing, and magnetic particle crack detection, to new and very specialized methods such as the measurement of Barkhausen noise and positron annihilation spectroscopy.
Condition monitoring (CM) aims to ensure plant efficiency, productivity, and reliability by monitoring and analyzing the wear of operating machinery and components to provide an early warning of impending failure, thereby reducing costly plant shutdown. Condition monitoring originally used mainly vibration and tribology analysis techniques but now encompasses new fields such as thermal imaging, acoustic emission, and other non-destructive techniques. The diagnostic and prognostic elements, in addition to increasingly sophisticated signal processing, use trends from repeated measurements in time intervals of days and weeks.
Contact for press inquiries and image requests:
Sharon Creed
Marketing & PR Manager
The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing
Midsummer House, Riverside Way, Bedford Road
Northampton NN1 5NX, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1604 438300
Fax: +44 (0)1604 438301
Email: sharon.creed@bindt.org
