Elizabeth who works in the Ultrasound Group presented an update of her results to the NDA and the wider nuclear industry, showing how the pressure inside a welded steel container could be measured using non-contact acoustic transducers to excite and detect the natural resonant modes of the container via the electromagnetic Lorentz mechanism. The pressure inside the containers can increase due to radioactive decays and chemical reactions of the material inside the sealed containers, and it is important to be able to measure if the pressure becomes too high. Using a combination of Finite Element (FE) modelling, optical vibrometer and EMAT measurements, Elizabeth has proved that the resonant modes that she is experimentally measuring, correspond exactly to those predicted by the FE models, and that generally the frequency of those modes increase as pressure inside the container increases. Elizabeth plans to develop a prototype system for trials in the nuclear industry, under an EPSRC IAA project that she will start later this year.

Watch a video presentation of Elizabeth's work.