Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
Metallurgy and Materials Group
Kalpakkam 603 102
India

 1. Member Institution

OUNEST Foundation 
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

 2. Contact Person 

Dr. Baldev Raj
Secretary, National Certification Board 
Secretary, QUNEST Foundation 
Chairman, Sectional Committee on NDT, Bureau of Indian Standards 
Chairman, PGPC and Hon. Member, ICNDT 
Director, Metallurgy and Materials Group 
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research 
Kalpakkam - 603 102 

Phone: 91 4114 40234 (0) / 41342 (R)
Fax    91 4114 40301/40360/40356 

E-Mail  dmg@igcar.ernet.in 

3. Profile of Institution 

The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research has established comprehensive activities in a wide variety of disciplines such as metallurgy and material science, thermodynamics of materials at high temperature, engineering design, chemistry, instrumentation, computers, safety engineering, engineering development, sensors etc. The Centre has strong programmes in materials selection, corrosion, physical metallurgy, mechanical properties, physical metallurgy, welding, non-destructive testing, structural mechanics, physics of materials, nuclear techniques, etc.

Even though the Centre is involved in a mission-oriented technological programme, it has a broad based multidisplinary program in the areas of basic research. This policy and philosophy is reflected from the fact that it has made important contributions in many areas of basic studies including some frontier and topical subjects like Quasicrystals, Oxide superconductors, Nano-structures and Clusters, apart from thrust areas related to Nuclear Technology. Versatile computing facilities, workshops and other necessary engineering services and a we, 11 equipped library have all been provided in the Centre to aid in the research and development efforts and to    generate a reservoir of knowledge and expertise for national prosperity and meeting national aspirations of quality improvement and management. Active collaborations between many disciplines and of course between the Centre, educational institutions, other research organisations, nationally and internationally, have contributed significantly to the recognition of this Centre in the chosen areas of research and development. 

NDE Activities 

1. Principal Mission of NDE Activities 

Major Objectives

• Research and Development in the field of non-destructive testing and evaluation for preservice and in service inspection of components, structural materials and plants.

• Modelling of NDE, development of NDE sensors and NDE instrumentation

• Develop and apply NDE techniques for high sensitivity defect detection and materials characterization, damage assessment, life extension and failure analysis

• Application of advanced signal analysis including artificial intelligence to challenging NDE problems

• Development of knowledge based systems and robotic devices

• To further the science and technology of NDT as a means of enhancing productivity, reliability, safety and quality in industry, commerce and related fields

• The Centre has facilities and expertise in all the conventional and advanced NDE techniques.  The major objective now is to establish a Centre for Excellence in NDE that would serve as a major focal point for NDE nationally and cater to the needs of the major and small scale industries

• Train and certify NDT personnel in conventional and advanced areas

• To increase the emphasis of NDE in the curricula of undergraduate and postgraduate programs and to develop NDE science and engineering as a separate branch of engineering for award of degrees and diplomas

• To have international collaborations for exchange of-Information, fostering the growth of NDE and development of new standards

• To aid in the international harmonization of the training and certification 

2. Technological Environment 

In addition to the technological needs of nuclear industry, the Centre, also serves public and private sector organisations. The core of the research support comes from the Department of Atomic Energy while some projects of technological and national importance are supported by the Department of Science and Technology. 

3. Departments / Centers involved in NDE 

The work is conducted by a multi disciplinary group of full time professional scientists and engineers. Included in this group are metallurgists, physicists, mechanical, electrical, electronics and computer engineers. 

4. Number of scientific personnel in each category 

• Post graduates and doctorates in NDE science and technology:  45 

• Graduates in Science and engineering:  15 

• Technicians:  40

We have about ten students at a time in the Centre working on various projects leading to the degrees on advanced NDT (theoretical and experimental). Some of the typical undergraduate and post graduate projects that have been completed and the thesis submitted include :

• Acoustic emission for characterising deformation and fracture during tensile testing in austentitic stainless steels, Dr. Baldev Raj (doctoral thesis), 1989

• Microstructural characterisation in metallic materials using ultrasonic and magnetic methods, T. Jayakumar (doctoral thesis), 1996

• Detection and characterisation of defects by eddy current testing using pattern recognition approaches, M. T. Shyamsunder (doctoral thesis), 1998

• Characterisation of various types of reference defects using ultrasonic synthetic aperture focusing technique, P. Pugalendhi (M.Tech thesis), 1998

• Online monitoring of welds by acosutic emission and thermography, S. Devika (M. Tech thesis), 1998

• Monitoring of tensile deformation and fracture processes using Acoustic Emission and Thermography, G. Palanivel (M. Tech thesis), 1998 

• Applications of thermography in industrial electronics, Abdul Razack, G. Chakravarthy Ashok, K .A. Krishnakumar, S. Ram Ganesh (B. E. project), 1998

•  Detection of wall thinning in Carbon and Stainless Steel Pipes by infrared imaging, V. Revathy (M.Sc thesis), 1998.

•  Defect detection by advanced real time radiography, M. Sridevi (M.Sc thesis), 1997

•  8 channel multiplexed eddy current testing for conductivity measurement, J. Michael, A. Thangaraj and S. C. Premkumar (B.E. project), 1997.

•  Calibration of defects by conventional and microfocal radiography, P. Mouttoulatchoumy and R. Sundararaman (M.Sc thesis), 1995

•  Software Developmental of relational database for conference management using prolog, K.Arun Kumar (M.Sc thesis), 1995

•  Detection of wall thinning in pipes by Thermography, P. Patchaiammal (M.Sc thesis), 1994.

•  Single Channel Acoustic Emission System, R. Amudhu Ramesh Kumar, 1992 - 93

• High sensitivity detection and classification of defects in weldments exhibiting oriented growth using ultrasonic signal analysis, P.K alyanasundaram (MS Thesis), 1991

• Compatibility studies of AISI Type 316 Stainless Steel with Lead-lithium, Eutectic alloy, A. Joseph (MS thesis), 1991

• Studies on Non-Destructive Evaluation of Auatentitic Stainless Steel Weldments, S. Ravichandran (M.E. thesis), 1991

• Determination of temperature distribution in a  SS plate during welding, K.V enkateswarulu (M.E. thesis), 1991

• Analytical solutions of Eddy current testing phenomena (M. Phil thesis), 1987

• Microstructural characterisation of ferromagnetic steel by Magnetic Barkhausen Noise Kalpana. (M.Sc thesis), 1992

• Monitoring of tool wear in machining process using Acoustic Emission, D. Kannan (M.E. thesis), 1990

• Developmental of optical transducers for Acoustic Emission Monitoring, S. Elumalai (M.Tech thesis), 1989.

• Temperature measurement, Emissivity evaluation and. debond detection by thermography, A. Sukumaran (M.Tech thesis), 1988.

5. Internet  Networking 

Institutional website:  http://www.igcar.emet.in 

Contact person for Computer Networking:

Shrii M. Somasekaran 
Computer Division 
IGCAR, Kalpakkam - 603 102 
Phone: 91 4114 
Fax:  91 4114

Contact person for website content development and maintenance:

Shri R. Sathyamoorthy
Computer Division
IGCAR, Kalpakkam - 603 102 
Phone:  91 4114
Fax: 91 4114 

Website hardware, software information:

Server platform:   Silicon Graphics, INDY system 
Operating platform and Software: Silicon Graphics IRIX 
Type of connection to internet:  VSAT / VSNL 
Local (on campus):  ATM optical fibers

6. Educational Activities

A number of specialised seminars and workshops have been conducted aimed at promoting the use of NDT in various industries. Some of these include:

• Workshop on Prediction and Extension of Life of Components and Plants

• Clinic on Failure Analysis 

• Non-Destructive Evaluation of Corrosion (NECOR) 

• Workshop on Acoustic Emission 

• Workshop on Radiography 

• NDE for Managers 

• Course on Condition Monitoring of Components and Plants 

• Specialised course on NDT for Indian Airforce Personnel 

• Applications of Science and Technology for Conservation of Heritage 

• Laser Applications in Materials Science

• Risk based Assessment of Industrial Components and Plants

• Workshop on Image Processing and Analysis 

Apart from the above, the facilities of the Centre are extended to students, research scholars and scientists from various colleges, universities and institutions. These are given under "9". 

7. Research Activities

Research at the Centre is both multi-disciplinary team project approach and single investigator approach. The major source of funding for the various programs is by the Department of Atomic Energy while other sources include grants from the Department of Science and Technology and consultancy charges from the industries. The research consists of both fundamental Research advancing the state of the art and applied research in the areas of

Eddy current

• single and multi frequency

• impedance imaging

• simulation models

• inverse models 

Ultrasonics 

• conventional

• inverse models

• signal analysis 

• Emat based measurements

• SAFT 

• expert systems 

• IRIS 

Magnetics

• microstructural charcaterisation

• hysterisis loop parameters 

• acoustic and magnetic barkhausen noise

Signal Analysis

• neural networks

• artificial intelligence 

• pattern recognition

Radiography

• conventional, microfocal 

• real time

• CT

• neutron

• expert systems

Acoustic Emission

• oxidation behavior

• tensile deformation

• weld monitoring 

• signal analysis and neural networks

Thermal Imaging

• detector resolution

• online defect detection

• tensile deformation and residual stresses

• FEM modeling

Life Assessment and Extension

• microstructural characterization

• failure analysis

Laser

• holography

• speckle and surface studies

• laser generated ultrasound for materials characterization

Some of the areas of applied work in the context of specific applications include:

• NDE of aging aircraft components

• Development of acoustic based techniques for leak detection

• Development of techniques for scratch detection in tubes

• Development of magnetic techniques for wire rope inspection

• Development of optical probe for qualitative and quantitative evaluation measurement

• of defects in a ferromagnetic material

• Process for producing articles of metals, alloys and ceramics with etched surfaces and an apparatus for laser based etching of the said articles.

• International patents have been filed for the last five applications mentioned above.

FACILITIES

ULTRASONIC TESTING LABORATORY

• Ultrasonic flaw evaluation (single, multichannel (7) equipments, B Scan facility, immersion test facility, pipe scanner with 4 probes, dry scan equipment) 

• High frequency (up to 100 MHZ) ultrasonic pulser/receiver unit

• Ultrasonic transit time measuring equipment by pulse-echo technique (accuracy 0.2%; overlap and cross correlation techniques) 

• Internal rotary inspection system for tubes

• Synthetic Aperture Focussing Technique (SAFT) 

• Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) 

 ACOUSTIC EMISSION TESTING (AET) LABORATORY

• 16 channel acoustic emission testing system with advanced signal analysis facilities. 

RADIOGRAPHY AND THERMOGRAPHY LABORATORY

• 420 kV and 200 kV industrial X-ray units 

• 160 kV microfocal X-ray unit

• Real time image intensifier system for X-rays and neutrons 

• Thermography system for infrared imaging 

EDDY CURRENT TESTING (ECT) LABORATORY

• Single frequency, multifrequency, 3D and portable ECT Unit 

• Remote field ECT equipment

• Impact Echo and Low frequency Eddy Current Testing for concrete testing 

MAGNETIC MEASUREMENTS LABORATORY

• B-H loop measurement

• Magnetic Barkhausen noise measurement system 

STRUCTURAL TESTING, METALLOGRAPHY AND FAILURE ANALYSIS

• Universal Testing Machine (10 Te capacity) 

• Miniature specimen testing facilities

• Dynamic testing machine

• Portable electropolishing unit

• Microhardness tester (Ultrasonic and Rebound) 

• Sputter coating unit

• Ion beam etching unit

• In-situ METALLOGRAPHY (portable grinding, polishing, etching, microscopy, replication and photography)

SIGNAL PROCESSING LABORATORY

• Signal analysis system with 100 MHZ digitiser

• Interactive Laboratory Systems (ILS) Software for Signal Processing & Analysis 

• Intelligent Classifier Engineering Package Software

 RESIDUAL STRESS ANALYSIS LABORATORY

• X-ray diffraction measurement system

• Hole drilling and strain gauge-based residual stress measurement system

•  RS-200 milling guide for residual stress measurements 

• 20 channel strain measuring equipment

LASER LABORATORY

• Pulsed Nd-YaG laser and He-Ne laser 15 mW

IMAGE PROCESSING

• Image Processor for radiographs and thermal images 

• Image processing and image analysis equipment

OTHERS

• Vibration monitoring Visual testing

• Visible and fluorescent liquid penetrant testing and performance evaluation of LPT chemicals

• Magnetic particle inspection

8. Links with the Industries

The Centre has developed expertise in the areas of:

• In the conventional NDE testing of welds, castings and other components,

• In-service and pre-service inspection of tubular systems (heat exchangers, condensers, steam generators), development of special probes

• Selection of procedures and development of methodologies for nondestructive microstructural characterization of materials, residual stress measurements 

• Consultancy, training and certification in NDE, third party inspection and advice 

• Structural integrity monitoring in pressurized components 

• Failure analysis of plant components 

• Vibration and condition monitoring 

• Robotic devices for inspection

This expertise has been used to develop strong links with many private and public sector industries. The expertise has also been utilised to solve a number of challenging problems which have been referred to it. Some of the major industries which have utilised our expertise are

• Raman Boards, Mysore

• Zuari Agro Chemicals, Goa 

• Madras Refineries Limited

• Tamil Nadu Petrochemicals Limited 

• Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited

• Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited 

• Indian Railways

• Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited 

• Hindalco

• Gurajat State Fertiliser Corporation 

• BPCL

• P-Met Hi-Tech Company Private Limited

9. Linkage with other organisations

Professional Societies

Due to the multi disciplinary nature of NDE and the projects, the scientists and engineers of Centre are involved in many professional Societies. Examples of some of the Societies in which there is an active participation include:

• Indian Society for Non-Destructive Testing

• Indian Institute of Metals

• Materials Research Society of India

• Indian Institute of Engineers

• Indian Institute of Welding

• Indian Society for Radiation Physics

• Indian Physics Association

• Indian Nuclear Society

• Acoustical Society of India

• Acoustic Emission Working Group

• Neutron Radiography Working Group

• Indian Group of International Stereo Logical Society

• International Committee on NDT

• Policy and General Purposes Committee of ICNDT

• Asian Pacific Committee on NDT

• Collaboration with Universities and Research Institutes

The facilities at the Centre have been utilised by many students. The centre has collaborations with many universities and research organisations such as:

• Indian Institute of Science

• Indian Institute of Technology

• Regional Engineering Colleges

• Birla Institute of Technology and Science

• Madras University

• Anna University Bharatidasan University

• Pondicherry Engineering College

•  Mookambika College of Engineering

• National Metallurgical Laboratory

• Structural Engineering and Research Centre

• National Physical Laboratory

• Defense Research and Development Organisation

• Indian Space Research Organisation

• Welding Research Institute

• Bureau of Indian Standards

• Franhoufer Institute of NDT (IzfP), Germany

• Moscow Scientific and Industrial Association

  Exchange Visits - Scientists and faculty from the following labs have visited the Centre for short and long durations:

• Fraunhofer Institute of NDT (IzfP), Saarbrucken, Germany

• Institute of Metal Physics, Russia

• Q-NET, Germany

• Andhra University

• Anna University

• Bharatidasan University

• Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

• Indian Institute of Technology, Madras