Objective
Most of Europe’s power plants have reached or exceeded their 25 year creep design life. Safe extension of operating lifetime requires new inspection techniques that can detect creep damage in service. Researches have shown that, although failures in power plants often have multiple modes, the creep and fatigue are predominant for high temperature components. On the other hand, in order to reduce CO2 emissions and improving the electricity generating efficiency, engineering components are designed to operate at elevated temperature and pressure. It is expected that future power plants will run with steam temperatures up to 700°C in order to achieve thermal efficiencies of ~50%. To ensure the structural integrity of both the existing power plant and the new ones, it is crucial to understand the creep behaviour and measure/monitor the mechanical behaviour of the structures and components at elevated temperature. This proposal aims to develop a portable 3D deformation sensor for high temperature creep (HTC) measurement where direct sensor attachment and human access are difficult or dangerous. Advanced diagnostic algorithms will also be developed to assess the remaining life of the components based on creep measurement results. The technique will also have wide applications in other industrial sectors such as automotive and aerospace sectors.
The main objectives of the project are:
• To develop an optimised portable 3D deformation sensor for HTC measurement. The issues to be addressed include band-pass filter, illumination, movable platform, and image correction or deblurring algorithms etc.
• To develop techniques to fabricate speckle patterns that can survive long-term harsh environment.
• To Improve algorithms for accurate measurement of 3D deformation.
• To develop algorithms for remaining life assessment based on creep measurement results.
• To conduct laboratory tests and mock-up trials to validate the technique.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IIF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
MC-IIF - International Incoming Fellowships (IIF)Coordinator
CB21 6AL Cambridge
United Kingdom