Welcome to Structural Integrity at Imperial College
Summary and Scope
Structural Integrity (SI) assessment involves a number of disciplines that exist mainly in Aeronautics, Materials and Mechanical Engineering departments and the Composites Centre at Imperial College London. It is concerned with determining the performance, durability and safety of equipment that is subjected to arrange of operating conditions during use. The principal disciplines involved are materials modelling, stress analysis, inspection techniques and experimental validation. Structural integrity assessment therefore requires several disciplines to obtain reliable predictions. Figure below gives an overall link between, materials, testing, modelling, failure mechanisms, loading history and correlating parameters that are needed to develop a sound base for SI.
Imperial College London has been at the forefront of structural integrity assessment for many years. The Department of Mechanical Engineering, in particular, was instrumental in developing elastic, plastic and creep fracture mechanics concepts for predicting failure in components under a wide range of operating conditions. Many of the procedures developed have been incorporated into national and international standards and industrial codes of practice. SI Centre is now expanded to bring together groups of expert within Imperial College who have common interest in the field. It allows optimization of human resources and equipment at Imperial. The Centre is a virtual collaborative grouping with good links to industry and research bodies. An interdisciplinary approach able to respond to a wide range of research opportunities is taken within the SI group.
Schematic of the Range of Fundamental Based Capabilites in Structural Integrity at Imperial College Leading to Predictive Methods in Life Assessment of Components
For further information contact Professor Kamran Nikbin,
k.nikbin@imperial.ac.uk, Tel: 00 44 20 7594 7133
Relevant Links:RAEng, VAMAS, British Energy, ASTM, BSI, ISO , IHI
map:Imperial College
