Subject:      NDT Job at Reading University, England
From:         Jasper Graham-Jones 
Date:         1998/03/25
Message-ID:   <3519177A.D4831DEB@reading.ac.uk>
Newsgroups:   sci.techniques.testing.nondestructive,sci.techniques.testing.misc,sci.materials,sci.eng


Research Fellow in Mechanics of Materials
                                   Reference Number R9813
A vacancy exists for a research assistant to work in the Rope Research
Group at the University of Reading on
work concerned with the safety of wire ropes. The work will involve
evaluating and developing NDT systems for
rope inspection, developing techniques for simulating the service
degradation of ropes, and correlating NDT output
with physical condition of ropes and a projection of remaining service
life.

Starting salary in the range £15,159 to £19,371 per annum according to
age, qualifications and experience.

The post is for a fixed period starting as soon as possible until 30
June 1999.

The successful candidate will have a good honours degree in Mechanical
Engineering or a related discipline, have
relevant postgraduate experience, a proven ability to work on applied
materials mechanics problems, and handle
advanced instrumentation, interfaced to computers. Experience with NDT
systems would be a significant
advantage.

Application forms and further particulars (see below) available from

     Personnel Office,
     The University of Reading,
     Whiteknights,
     PO Box 217,
     READING RG6 6AH
     +44 (0)118 931 6771 (answerphone).

     E-Mail: Personnel@rdg.ac.uk giving full name,  address and details.



Closing date for applications 13 April 1998. Please quote Reference
Number R9813.

Further particulars:
                                  Investigation of Rope NDT
                           Rope Research at The University of Reading

The Rope Research group
(http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/st/home/material/ropes/home.html) in the
Department of
Engineering (http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/st/home.html) at Reading,
under the leadership of Professor Richard
Chaplin, has established a world wide reputation in this highly
specialised field. Much of the work performed over
the past 18 years has been motivated by new problems associated with
offshore applications in connection with oil
exploration and production. The relevant areas of application have been
mooring systems for floating offshore
structures, diving bell hoist systems as well as more general issues of
strength, endurance, termination and
inspection technology. Interest has also been focused on deep mine
hoisting applications, specifically as regards the
requirements of gold mines in South Africa and their quest for
ultra-deep shafts (to 4000 m).

This work has been funded by EPSRC, by other government agencies
(especially HSE) and by industry. Currently
a Rope Research programme is underway funded wholly by industry through
a "rope research club". The sponsors
of this programme include three international oil companies and two
international rope manufacturers.

Recent work funded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has focussed
on long term degradation of
galvanised diving bell hoist ropes. HSE, motivated largely by proposed
legislation for offshore lifting and handling
are now funding further work connected with rope fatigue, especially
subsequent to operational degradation, and
developments in electromagnetic rope NDT. This programme of work is
defined in terms of three linked projects,
to run over a two year period:

1. Wire Rope NDT
Electromagnetic wire rope testing has been in use for many years. A
detailed investigation of the suitability of
available systems for use inspecting ropes in mines was carried out by
SMRE (as it then was) 20 years ago. This
lead to development of special equipment for use by British Coal on an
informal (i.e. unregulated) basis. In the
intervening period there have been significant developments, elsewhere
in the world, in the instruments available, as
well as in the regulatory framework for rope NDT. For example South
Africa is introducing standards for the
performance of NDT instruments, and for qualification of operators
(adoption of approved procedures will
influence the minimum permitted factor of safety); in the USA, ASTM now
has a standard for testing instruments; in
Brazil offshore crane ropes are regularly inspected by NDT; and in
Switzerland there are federal regulations for the
annual NDT of ropes on aerial ropeways for public use. There is a need
to review the capability of systems
currently available; to develop computer processing of the resultant
signals; and to define procedures for relevant
calibration and interpretation of output, which represent a serious
deficiency in the current state of the art. The
outcome of this project will be the definition of procedures to provide
more reliable rope inspection using NDT,
applicable to a broad range of applications and enhanced by computer
processed data. The programme of work
will involve collaboration with two NDT instrument manufacturers, one in
Poland and one in the USA, it also
involves collaboration with the HSE laboratories and with the mining
industry in South Africa.

2. The Sensitivity of Rope Fatigue to Degradation and Accidental Damage
The basis for rope discard is usually a perceived loss in strength
related to some observed local degradation. The
justification for the use of such a criterion is not that the reduction
of strength causes a risk of failure in itself, but that
it is an indication that degradation will proceed in the future at a
rate that will cause strength to fall to a level where
there is an unacceptable risk of failure before the next inspection.
There is a need to investigate the rates of
deterioration associated with different types and degrees of degradation
(wear, broken wires, corrosion, distortion,
etc.) under repeated normal loading, which would typically involve
repeated bending, perhaps combined with load
fluctuation. The outcome of such an investigation would serve to
quantify the reliability of traditional discard criteria,
in terms of prognosis for future service life.

3. The Influence of Rope Quality on Rope Fatigue Endurance
Investigations of tensile fatigue have shown significant variations, in
excess of an order of magnitude, in the
endurance of nominally similar ropes of different manufacture (time or
place of manufacture). It is worth noting that
samples of any one rope exhibit highly consistent fatigue behaviour: the
statistical problem in calculating a safe
service life is to allow for this variation between ropes. Preliminary
work at Reading indicates that these differences
are, to some extent, attributable to variations in manufactured
"quality" in terms of the equality of load sharing
between constituent wires in the rope construction. However the full
nature of this rope "quality" requires more
detailed investigation. The potential for rope inspection to distiguish
differences in rope quality would provide a
significant step in identifying rope likely to fail prematurely and so
enhance safety of operation.

The programme of research on these three topics is already in progress.
The Research Assistant post which has
been advertised is connected to the NDT work.
----------


Related information:

Wire Rope non-destructive testing

Sponsored by: The Health and Safety Executive, Offshore Safety Division. 
Researchers: Prof. C.R. Chaplin and Jasper Graham-Jones. 

           Electromagnetic wire rope testing has been in use for many years. This investigation is reviewing the capability of systems
          currently available; developing computer processing of the resultant signals; and defining procedures for relevant calibration
          and interpretation of output (a serious deficiency in the current state of the art). The outcome of the project will be the definition
          of procedures to provide more reliable rope inspection using NDT, applicable to a broad range of applications and enhanced by
          computer processed data. The programme of work involves collaboration with a Polish instrument manufacturer who is
          developing a suitable system. 

            
References: 
               Weischedel, H.R. & Chaplin, C.R. The Inspection of Offshore Wire Ropes: the State of the Art Proc. 24th Annual
               Offshore Technology Conference Houston Texas 4th-7th May (1992) no. OTC 6969 227-239. 

For further information please contact P.J.Graham-Jones@reading.ac.uk
(Copy form http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/st/home/material/ropes/roperes1.html#NDT)