The ever evolving science of neutron scattering is revolutionising stress measurement techniques for aircraft, with new instruments letting scientists and engineers test larger components such as engines and wing panels in one piece, instead of small samples said the United Kingdom’s Open University’s Professor Lyndon Edwards today.
“More sophisticated neutron instruments are providing scientists and engineers with unique information about the stresses introduced into aircraft structures during manufacture, which has the potential to significantly influence future aircraft design,” said Professor Edwards.
“Neutron stress measurement is a non-destructive technique that looks at a component’s structure at the atomic level and enables stresses to be easily seen and measured by scientists and engineers.
“In the past residual stresses, in particular, were difficult to measure reliably and accurately but with the growth of neutron scientific techniques this has dramatically changed,” he said.
For the past twenty years Professor Edwards has worked with the aerospace industry and over this time technology has helped produced more structurally efficient aircraft. This is something that is set to continue he said.
“Aircraft design processes change relatively slowly as obviously safety is paramount so the engineering is to impeccable standards,” he said.
“However in the past five years the progress in neutron measurement instruments such as the Engin-X beamline at ISIS in the United Kingdom, I believe, will influence the time new designs and prototypes take to become viable commercial or military aircraft.
“By having more accurate information of the stresses seen by the aircraft in service , the industry will have the ability to build more sophisticated aircraft in a shorter space of time,” he said
“The developments we have made in residual stress measurement methods for large aircraft components represents a significant advance in our knowledge of this field and is therefore an extremely important milestone,” said Professor Edwards.
In Australia, the ANSTO reactor OPAL due to be complete by the end of 2006 will also have instrumentation capable of making similar measurements. These have applications not only for the aerospace and automobile industries but other heavy industries such as power, railways, shipbuilding, steel and mining.
Published: 29/11/2005