Application of the Finite Element Method for Expanding the Capabilities of Educational Programs for Non-destructive Testing of Industrial Facilities

Any industrial facilities require condition monitoring of many parts and units. There are many non-destructive testing methods. For teaching each method, a special training course and its own educational program are required. But unfortunately it’s not enough. As for many other technical courses there is a need for laboratories with a large amount of equipment. The most important part of the necessary equipment are defectoscopes, probes, and industrial samples. Defectoscope is very expensive equipment, but you can still buy them one-time, but with probes and samples everything is much more complicated. Best way for education is to give each student their own individual tasks, but in real conditions there is a very limited set of probes, as well as industrial samples for monitoring. The problem is also the lack of complete information about the structure of the probes themselves. This is not so important when training just defectoscope users, but we are training students who will later become developers and scientists. In this situation, modeling and calculation using the finite element method is the best choice. This method opens up the possibility of researching any industrial objects, it is only necessary to create a model and set its necessary properties. Also, students get the opportunity to easily simulate a new probe or to change some of its parameters, which greatly expands the possibilities of research, and also makes it possible to personalize tasks.