GREEN CDT: Structural damage assessment using infrared detectors in fusion environments

Plasma facing components in planned fusion powerplants will experience significant structural and functional degradation in service. The proposed approach for inspection and maintenance of plasma facing components relies on the establishment of periodic inspection intervals, which are costly as they require extended plant outages. The frequency of in-vessel inspections will be heavily influenced by estimates of plasma facing component lifetimes, which are amongst the lowest of all in-vessel components. This dictates an urgent need for the development of structural health monitoring systems for plasma facing components, which can identify and track material degradation without the need for plant shutdown, while providing the ability to signal unplanned maintenance at the earliest sign of component failure.
In this project it is proposed to use infrared detectors for structural health monitoring. Infrared detectors are routinely deployed in fusion vessel diagnostics; however, their use is limited to measurement of surface temperatures and heat loads. Recently, there has been promising work on the use of infrared sensors for structural health monitoring in the aerospace industry. Work conducted by Eann Patterson and William Christian at the University of Liverpool has demonstrated the ability to automate damage identification and tracking fields of data acquired with infrared and visual sensors. Hence, there is an untapped potential for utilising infrared detectors for in-situ damage detection in plasma facing components in fusion powerplants.