ADVISE

ADVanced Inspection of Complex StructurEs (ADVISE)

Launched in September 2017, the project has received a funding of 4.17 million Euro from the Horizon 2020 Euratom Research and Training Programme 2014-2018 of the European Union. It is set to run for a period of 48 months and is coordinated by Electricité de France (EDF).

I. Introduction to the project

  - The main goal of the project   

ADVISE aims to advance the ultrasonic inspection of corrosion resistant alloys, in particular dissimilar metal welds, austenitic welds and cast austenitic steel, for which conventional ultrasonic techniques suffer from severe performance limitations due to the microstructure.

ADVISE project aims at providing NPP operators with the above mentioned advanced efficient and reliable ultrasonic inspections by developing:

• increased comprehension and modelling of complex structures for accurate prediction,
• new tools for material characterisation and input data,
• advanced defect evaluation methods and assisted diagnostics

ADVISE project relies on a multi-pronged strategy:

Model-assisted inspection enhancement tools allow the iterative optimisation of customised transducers and associated excitation signals, to specify the most appropriate inspection approach.

Novel in-situ characterisation techniques acquire specific information about the structure to be inspected; then model-assisted optimisation tools fine-tune the inspection parameters in the field.

Model-assisted diagnostic tools take a-priori, model-predicted and in-situ obtained information into account to fully exploit the information contained in full matrix capture (FMC) acquisitions, using adaptive imaging methods, backscatter filtering and inversion strategies.

II. List of participants

The coordinator:

ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE (EDF)

Co-beneficiaries:

IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY MEDICINE (ICL)

FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. (FRAUNHOFER)

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES (CEA)

ARTTIC (ARTTIC)

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL (UoB)

M 2 M (M2M)

BAY ZOLTAN ALKALMAZOTT KUTATASI KOZHASZNU NONPROFIT KFT.  (BZN)

KAUNO TECHNOLOGIJOS UNIVERSITETAS (KTU)

EXTENDE (EXT)

UNIVERSITAET STUTTGART (USTUTT)

INTERCONTROLE (AREVA IC)

UJV REZ, a.s. (UJV)

 

III. Project outputs

ADVISE will deliver:

1. Methods to: 

• Measure the properties of NPP materials that cause difficulties for their inspection by ultrasound, including grain size, wave speed and attenuation and their spatial variations.

• Simulate ultrasound propagation, attenuation, scattering and interactions with defects in the materials under concern; these methods will be vital tools for the evaluation and optimisation of any target inspections.

• Optimise the performance of ultrasonic inspection. This will include the parameters of ultrasound arrays, data acquisition, signal/image processing, and interpretation. Performance will include both detection and characterisation.

2. Simulation tools, imaging tools and diagnostic tools (software and hardware) dedicated to complex materials. 

3. Physical demonstration examples using real materials and representative target defects, showcasing the new methods and optimised NDE capabilities.

4. Public workshops, training sessions and publications for broad dissemination.

http://www.advise-h2020.eu