LRUCM

The LRUCM (Long Range Ultrasonic Condition Monitoring) project will develop new techniques for inspecting Europe's engineering assets (Pipeline, Rails, Offshore platforms, Cable stayed/suspension bridges and Sheet piled coastal defences, etc), which are degrading, thus posing risk of failure.

Europe's maintenance/inspection budget for these assets is ~€225 billion/annum.  Even so, failures result in the following catastrophes: 

• Rails. More than 2,500 rail fractures occur annually causing delays and derailments.
• Oil/Gas pipelines. Spillages from pipelines involved a total of 1,000 fatalities and serious injuries.
• Bridges. Most of the world’s cable stayed/suspension bridges are in danger due to corrosion of their cables.
• Sea/River defences. Sheet piling is corroding endangering their integrity and risking high value real estate.
• Heat Exchanger Tubing. Used in process and petrochemical plants around the world

Conventional inspection methods have the following drawbacks: 

• Their maximum range is tens of millimetres. Thus many man months are needed to inspect a large structure.
• They need direct access to the structure. Access costs may be 5-10 times those of inspection. Overall cost is prohibitive.

Recent developments (made largely by Core Group SMEs) have used guided ultrasound with ranges of 10m or more. LRUT (Long Range Ultrasonic Testing) can solve the otherwise intractable problem of inspecting engineering assets. It has the advantage of full volume coverage and the ability to test long lengths of structure from one point. Inaccessible regions can also be tested from an accessible location. Potential defective areas are located accurately in terms of distance from the inspection tool.
The development of LRUT technology will help ~16,000 EU inspection and maintenance SMEs.
For its part, KCC will design, develop, test and deploy the man-machine-interfaces and provide on-going software development skills.