Summary of accomplishments (2001-2023)

CNDE has been playing key roles in developing and deploying NDE 4.0 technologies through a collaborative mode. The global stakeholders of the CNDE include the various exchange programs, joint research with international institutions, and collaborations and projects in association with government and national labs and industries worldwide.

CNDE has developed cutting-edge innovations in quantitative thermography, robotized ultrasonic scanners, annular plate and pipe support inspection, feature-guided waves, robotics for pipelines and railway tracks, immersed structure inspection, and waveguide sensors. CNDE has also pioneered affordable NDE simulation tools. The emphasis on translational research has led CNDE to develop a strong technology entrepreneurship base, with as many as 12 spin-out ventures emerging over the last five years alone.

CNDE is now globally considered as the pre-eminent academic NDE research center in India, ranking together with such globally eminent groups as CNDE Iowa State University USA, Penn. State USA, RCNDE UK, IZFp & BAM, Germany, ZUT Poland, Sungkyunkwan University Korea, and Nanjing University China.Due to the academic excellence, productization of technology, and significant international collaborations as well as wide clientele, the CNDE and its eco-system comprising its startups that includes approximately 1200+ personnel, the global ranking in the field of NDE will be in one of the top 8 in the world. Through this CoE efforts, it is envisaged that CNDE at IITM will be ranked in the top 3 centers in the world.

CNDE is currently considered as one of the leading centers of excellence in this field with NINE faculty from various disciplines joining in this proposed effort. The demographics of the team is illustrated in the Figure 3 below showing the multidisciplinary nature of the proposed team and the combined strong track record in academic, international collaborations, Publications and its impact, Outreach including startups and Research Funding.

NDE 4.0 Technologies

Asset Integrity and Process Monitoring technologies have a logical impact on operational costs. Efficiencies realized by effectively managing labor, inventory and other support services directly impact the bottom line by helping to control costs. More timely and precise user intervention can improve productivity, reduce materials use and decrease the cost of doing business.

This has led to the development of NDE 4.0 technologies over the past 10 years, where the CNDE has played a key role in the technology's development, evangelization, and deployment through technology transfer and incubated startup companies. Figure 4 below shows the transitions in the NDE technologies and the relevance of NDE 5.0.

A robust approach to integrity and maintenance is key to safely improving reliability, maintaining production, reducing cost and increasing profitability. Equipment failures cost the U.S. refining industry over $4 billion per year alone. In the upstream sector, best-in-class operators deliver up to 30 per cent more value from producing assets, with facility reliability at 95-98 per cent .

One key reason being the reactive culture in operations, with many unplanned breakdowns and maintenance issues being solved only as they come up during the day. This typically results in poor reliability and safety and higher cost of operations. Organizations are challenged with how to maximize the value of assets throughout their lifecycle. In fact, in a recent survey of asset managers worldwide, more than 75% of respondents cited system reliability as the fundamental reason to invest in enterprise asset management.

Asset management, driven by valuable insights from IoT data and data obtained using automated and/or autonomous robotic tools, can have a significant impact. One critical step is to unify processes that manage wide-ranging functions across an organization’s multiple sites. When this framework is in place, organizations can optimize production and service systems within each site. As a result, organizations can wield greater control of the complex asset environments necessary for bottom-line results.

Several inspection technologies are employed by these industries to perform periodic assessments, usually during the scheduled shutdowns. Few leave-in-place sensors are also commonly found in some of the better performing operators. However, the poor performance efficiency, frequency forced shutdowns, early retirement of critical assets, increased safety and environmental risks, are found to be common across the board, particularly due to the routine pressures of supply/demand.

The data collected are often reported in textual context with only broad inferences based on experiences and/or standards followed in the industry. This often has led to the adaptation of higher than necessary factors of safety during the decision-making processes. Also, the relationship between the process parameters, the state of the asset, the future demands, the history of the asset utilisation, the geographical and local factors that influence the life of the asset, etc. are not readily available and certainly not available in a quantitative form to make critical decisions.

Hence, the need for improved asset management systems including IIOT has been well documented. According to an A. T. Kearney survey in Industry Week, 558 companies that currently use “computerized maintenance management systems” exhibited an average of:

Some of the status of the Inspection Technologies under the NDE 4.0 paradigm as developed by CNDE eco-system in the recent years are summarized as below:

Under-fluid Robot for Storage Tank Bottom Inspection & Monitoring: Currently, the large tank bottom metal floors are inspected by

IIOT for distributed temperature & moisture sensing to predict onset of corrosion: Currently, the moisture in the insulated reactors leads to condensation on the inside surface that leads to corrosion and hence prone to unplanned outages and expensive interventions. If the onset of condensation can be determined, without intrusive sensors, process interventions are possible that can mitigate this detrimental effect. Currently, there are no validated methods that can be used during the operation of the reactor.

IIOT GUMPS for high temperature pipes (CUI): Hot pipes are insulated to preserve the energy and keep the products at optimal temperatures. The high temperature pipes are more prone to damage mechanisms, but due to the temperature and insulation are often not inspected. Currently the only approach is to wait for a maintenance shutdown where the entire insulation is removed and conventional inspection tools are employed. This is currently an expensive approach.

IIOT CUPS for hidden corrosion evaluation at pipe supports: Pipe supports are very prevalent and prone to corrosion due to the accumulation of rainwater in the crevice region. The inspection of this region is extremely challenging. Currently, the only reliable approach is an IITM Technology called CUPS and has been adopted by many multinational companies worldwide. In this proposal, it is proposed to convert this CUPS technology into an IIOT approach with leave-in-place sensors to make this an autonomous system.

Short Range Laser Profiling Robot for unpiggable pipes: Pipes inside the battery limits are buried or in inaccessible locations and the only approach to inspection is by robots. While there are no current methods to inspect such pipes, it is proposed here to develop a novel small footprint robot that can crawl inside the pipes and evaluate the internals of the pipes using a patent pending laser profiling approach. Under-water Robot for automated assessment of Marine Concrete Assets: The process industry such as refineries maintain marine concrete assets which are prone to damage mechanisms. Current approach is to use human divers. This approach depends on the availability of trained divers, their safety, reduced performance due to fatigue and absence of quantifiable and archivable information. Use of remotely operated underwater robots with information processing dashboards is being proposed here.

Automated Aerial Drone based Inspection, Monitoring and 3D digital-twin reconstruction: The current approach for inspection of elevated assets is by installing scaffolding and human inspectors. Same as divers, this is dangerous and not robust. The use of drones allows rapid inspection methods that can go beyond gathering digital datasets. Multiple sensors including Ultrasonics, infrared, and visual modalities can be used and the data is fused to provide enhanced information. Using photo-gravimetry, 3D data models can be reconstructed for digital-twins of these assets and corrected for any changes in the asset over time.