Ambition

With the development of inspection and signal processing methods, as well as material characterisation, ADVISE specifically addresses the remaining technology gaps – such as the inspection of cast austenitic stainless steel for large thicknesses and austenitic welds and dissimilar metal welds.

The exploitation of ADVISE findings will lead to the provision of knowledge, processes, methods, tools and equipment that can be both used by the scientific community and the nuclear industry.

The project is expected to pave the way for the application of ultrasonic inspection techniques on components which complex structured material represents a performance barrier with today’s available technology. The developed methodology will help overcoming difficulties faced in in-service inspection, manufacturing, and during the erection of plants, achieving a satisfying level of performance, in accordance with customers and code requirements.

ADVISE will bring major advances which will benefit:

• Design and Manufacturing of nuclear components Industry, who will have at its disposal new tools helping in NDE solution design and/or data analysis
• Inspection service providers, who will extend their ultrasonic inspection portfolio by covering a new class of materials, which should find demand not only in the nuclear sector, but also likely in the naval/marine and aerospace sector
• Plant owners, who will benefit from reduced inspection time, replacing radiographic inspection by ultrasonic techniques, which allow co-activity and do not require radiation shielding, thus also increasing safety
• NDE Training centres, who will have the possibility to illustrate the physical phenomena on interaction between a mechanical wave and a complex metallurgical media
• Simulation and diagnostic tool providers will enhance their offer and strengthen their position with new applications, implying academic partners providing advanced signal processing algorithms.