‘In-situ’ Inspection Technologies: Trends in Degradation Assessment and Associated Technologies

The advent of advanced, innovative and complex engineered systems has established new technologies that are far more superior and perform well even in harsh environments. It is well established that such next generation systems need to be maintained regularly to prevent any catastrophic failure as a result of regular wear and tear. Non-destructive and structural monitoring technologies have been supporting maintenance activities for over a century and industries still continue to rely on such technologies for effective degradation assessment. Maintenance ‘in-situ’ has been adopted for decades where the health of system or component needs to be inspected in its natural environment, especially those safety critical systems that need in-field inspection to determine its health. This paper presents selective case studies adopted in the area of damage assessment that qualify for both field and ‘in-situ’ inspection. The future directions in the applicability of traditional and advanced inspection techniques to inspect multiple materials and in the area of inaccessible area degradation assessment have also been presented as part of this study.