Research Issues in NDEL

Issues of interest to researchers in NDE span several broad areas. A thorough understanding of the physical process associated with nondestructive evaluation methods is a prerequisite for developing meaningful and technically appropriate solutions to inspection problems. Mathematical models that are often called forward models, which are capable of simulating the underlying physical process, are an important source of insight. Coupled with careful experimental work, such forward models can be used for designing new sensors, optimizing test conditions, estimating the probability of detection, assessing designs for inspectability and training inverse models for characterizing defects.

Inverse models are employed for estimating the defect and/or material characteristics based on information provided by the test. A variety of methods, both model as well as systems based, are employed to arrive at the solution. Systems based methods utilize a number of signal processing and pattern recognition techniques for interpreting the signals. Model based schemes make use of our knowledge of the underlying physical process to arrive at the inverse solution.

Other active research areas include the development of new NDE methods, sensors and instrumentation.