Institution news
Please could you briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience with regards to Structural Integrity and the Reducing Conservatism in Structural Integrity seminar?
Rory Spencer (RS): My role as a Materials Engineer at UKAEA is focussed on developing novel testing approaches to get materials data for fusion powerplant design. This includes optical strain measurement techniques, complex geometry specimens and testing at high and low temperatures. Fusion components will be exposed to extreme heat fluxes, temperatures, mechanical loads, and irradiation damage. Understanding how materials perform when exposed to these environments is key to designing components and estimating their lifetime. Design codes for fusion powerplants are moving towards design-by-analysis and elastoplastic modelling to reduce the conservatism associated with linear elastic rules.
What, in your experience, has been the biggest roadblock for utilising new procedures and approaches in your sector?
RS: Fusion engineering is transitioning from the research phase into the design phase for powerplants planned to deliver electricity to the grid. In my experience, this has provided more openness to new approaches for materials testing. The choice of regulatory environment and applicable design codes for future devices will have an impact on this.
What key topics are you excited to discuss at this year's conference?
RS: I am excited to discuss fracture mechanics and see what the current state-of-the-art approaches are for assessment. My experience has primarily been in fracture and fatigue crack growth testing and I am interested to see how this data feeds through to structural integrity assessment.
What would you say are the technologies or applications to watch for the future?
RS: There is an increasing use of finite element modelling for design and assessment of structures. However, I believe there is a lack of validation of these models and limited understanding of the flow of uncertainty in model inputs to outputs. Techniques such as probabilistic FE modelling can be used to assess the impact of input uncertainty and optical techniques for measuring full-field strain can be used to validate models against experiment.
Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme?
RS: I am looking forward to the other materials characterisation talks and hearing about the cutting-edge experimental techniques that are being used.
I am also interested to hear the case studies from other industries to see how these challenges align with those faced in fusion engineering.
Why is it important for engineers to join this conference?
PG: I think it is important to get a broad perspective on current approaches to reducing conservatism and to develop contacts across different sectors.
The IMechE's Reducing Conservatism in Structural Integrity seminar takes place on 21 November 2023 in Manchester
The seminar will provide a technical forum for the safe exploration of new ideas and strategies for asset maintenance, monitoring and testing. Projects from both academia and industry will outline successes and lessons learned that can be applied across multiple industries, with examples from Automotive, Nuclear and Aerospace industries shared.
To view the full agenda and to register your place, please visit the event website.