TUS is the largest higher engineering university in Bulgaria with over 12000 students and 1200 full-time academic staff.
Additionally, the university has a RTD division that was founded 30 years ago and that comprises around 50 laboratories and over
600 full time staff members. The university is involved in over 50 joint European projects of the EU TEMPUS and
COPERNICUS programmes.
Reasons for participating
This University sees NDT as a growth area of activity for them and has formed a dedicated NDT Department. This project is therefore suited to TUS's long-term aims in terms of involvement in one of the most significant NDT research areas in recent times. The research for these work packages will be carried out by the Centre for NDT Education, Research and Quality Control at TUS. The NDT Centre at TUS has recently benefited from a 0.5 million Euro European Tempus programme grant. This money was used to buy the latest NDT instrumentation and systems (including ultrasonic systems) for the Centre. The Centre has become the only EC accredited Centre for NDT research and education in Bulgaria. Staff at the centre have considerable expertise in the fields of phased array ultrasonics, optics and also automation for NDT inspection, these skills will be used to support the SME partners in the project. This project fulfils TUS's strategic aim of increasing their activities in the growing composite inspection market.
TUS was chosen by the SMEs due to its NDT facilities, personnel experience and competitively priced research bid. TUS personnel involved in the project will be Prof. Yochev who is an internationally authority in the field of Ultrasonic inspection with over 100 publications plus experience of working on several successful EU projects. Colleagues at the central laboratory of optical storage will be specifically used for their expertise in the laser optics field having written several papers involving the use of laser diodes for phase stepping interferometry.
Role in the project
TUS will be mainly involved in the following work packages at the request of the SMEs: WP-A, production of calibration blocks with defects representing those typically found in GRP components; WP-C, development of the laser optical Shearography system and WP-E development of the dry coupled phased array wheel probe and coupling system.
