Further information
Professor Michael Lowe, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, presents his inaugural lecture “Exciting waves: properties and used of ultrasonic guided waves.”
In the Chair: Professor Tony Kinloch, FREng, FRS; Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering
Vote of Thanks: Professor Richard Challis, FREng, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Nottingham
A pre-lecture tea will be served from 16.45 in the Senior Common Room, Level 2, Sherfield Building, South Kensington Campus.
Attendance at this lecture is free with registration in advance: l.brown@imperial.ac.uk.
Abstract: Ultrasound is well established in industry as a Non Destructive Testing (NDT) method for the detection of defects, such as cracks or corrosion, in engineering components. Conventional ultrasonic NDT transmits ultrasound into a solid volume of material and then looks for any reflections coming back from defects. However, engineering components with structural shapes such as wires, bars, plates and pipes can allow the propagation of a quite different category of waves which are guided along the structure by its shape. These “guided waves” are attractive for NDT because of the possibility to inspect quickly over long distances. But they are much more complicated than those in the solid volumes of material, so practical exploitation requires substantial research. My research group is well known for this, from the fundamental understanding through to the transfer of new capabilities to industry. I will show how guided waves can be modelled and understood, and examples of how they can be exploited for NDT.
Biography: Michael Lowe graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc in Civil Engineering in 1979. He then worked for 10 years for the engineering consultants WS Atkins, specialising in the application and development of Finite Element methods for stress analysis; his principal clients were in the nuclear power and offshore oil industries. He took a year out in 1987 to study for an MSc at imperial College. In 1989 he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, first as a Research Assistant, when he was awarded a PhD, and then as an EPSRC Research Fellow. He was appointed to the academic staff in 1994. His research expertise is in the exploitation of ultrasound for the Non Destructive Testing of engineering structures. He is known in particular for his interests in the theory and modelling of waves and their interactions with structures. He was appointed professor in 2007.