Masters Degrees (Ndt)

The technology and applications of Non Destructive Testing (NDT) are wide-ranging and constantly evolving. Major fields of application include the aerospace industry, oil, gas and energy generation, chemical industries, space technology, rail transport, shipping and manufacturing.

Other applications are constantly emerging and there are strong links with medical technology. New NDT techniques need to be developed to meet the changing needs of nano-technologies.

Course Overview

Careers in NDT often offer opportunities to travel and to work in new, high technology industries. The series of taught modules that form part one of the course will develop your in-depth knowledge and understanding of non-destructive testing technologies. The University has access to a range of state-of-the-art equipment and technologies including: Infrared Thermography; Ultrasonics; Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometer; a ballistics testing cell and, DeltaVision computer software for the measurement of photoelasticity. Practical tasks undertaken with these facilities will enable you to develop your skills in applying a variety of testing and measurement techniques and critically examining the results.

Upon the successful completion of 120 credits in part one, you will be required to undertake an independent research project worth 60 credits. Your dissertation supervisor will be available to you to help guide you through the independent research phase.

Collaboration and Knowledge Transfer
Non Destructive Testing (NDT) and evaluation is a key area of research for UWTSD Swansea, where we are the lead academic partner in the NDT Validation Centre in Port Talbot (just outside Swansea), operated by TWI, a global leader in technology engineering and one of the UK's largest research organisations, with an international reputation. This partnership offers excellent opportunities to our students, providing industrial links relevant to the Part 2 project. Furthermore, funding from the Welsh Government and from the EPSRC has facilitated the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment. Other links with industry include: Knauf Insulation; Silverwing UK Ltd; Oceaneering Inspection Services; Team Precision Pipeline Assembllies; Cyden; and, Rikoset.

UWTSD Swansea is the lead academic partner in the NDT Validation Centre, just outside Swansea, and through this partnership has strong links with TWI, one of the UK's largest research organisations, with an international reputation. The Institute has received significant funding for equipment and has an active research group in NDT,

Modules

The programme is structured in two parts. Part I (120 Credits) comprises the following taught modules:
-Research Methods
-NDT Systems, Standards and Applications
-Materials
-Ultrasonic Methods
-Radiographic Methods
-Electromagnetic Methods
-Thermal and Optical Methods

Part II (60 Credits)
-Major Project

Read less

About the course

The course at Brunel stands out from others in the market because NSIRC is the UK’s first industrially-led postgraduate education centre, which is a joint initiative between TWI and Brunel University London as the lead academic partner.

There are no other postgraduate opportunities that provide a dedicated, specialist training programme that combines academic excellence through Brunel University London, with extensive up-to-date industrial experience of TWI’s experts across the many and varied disciplines essential to structural integrity, as applied in the oil and gas, power generation and transportation sectors.
 
 The National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC), an education and research collaboration with Brunel University London, is contributing to the course.

Aims

This programme is specifically tailored to provide graduates or practising engineers with the necessary skills to pursue a successful engineering career, who are targeted for recruitment by companies and organisations globally. As industry-ready engineers, recent graduates of this MSc are in high demand and have been successful in gaining employment in:

Oil and gas industry
Engineering consultancies
Asset management
Research organisations

When structures fail, the results can be catastrophic. Not only in terms of potential loss of life and operational downtime, but also because of the huge costs associated with subsequent inspection and repair. Integrity engineers play a crucial role in preventing these failures. Their decisions influence structural design, determine service life extensions and improve safety for a wide range of sectors, including oil and gas, power generation and transportation.

This unique postgraduate programme provides the necessary training needed to detect the existence, formation and growth of damage and defects, and to assess the influence of loads and stresses arising from manufacture and applied in service. While being able to detect defects is vital, it is knowing what to do with these defects that is at the core of this programme. You can expect to be taught by industrial experts involved in developing codes, standards and working practices.

Being industry-led, this programme provides an opportunity to work on real engineering projects, equipping graduates with applied knowledge of material and structural failure, finite element analysis, non-destructive testing and project management. 

Course Content

The MSc in Structural Integrity is based around eight modules and an industry-led dissertation project. Please be aware modules may be subject to change.

Modules:

Fracture Mechanics and Fatigue Analysis
Materials - Metallurgy and Materials
NDT Inspection Methodology
Codes of Practice with Principles and Application
Stress Analysis and Plant Inspection
Numerical Modelling of Solids and Structures
Reliability Engineering
Structural Health Monitoring
Dissertation

Work Placements

All dissertation projects will be linked to an industrial research scheme thus providing opportunities for placements to various extents appropriate to the project requirement.

Teaching

The course runs from September to September, with the key activities in the period up to the end of April being taught lecture modules and seminars from leading experts in the UK. From May until the end of the programme, students work full-time on their industrially supported dissertation project.

The programme employs a wide range of teaching methods designed to create a demanding and varied learning environment including a structured lecture programme, self-study online videos, case studies, “hands on” computing and testing laboratory sessions and guest speakers.

Assessment

Each module is assessed through a range of assessment types (including group work), to ensure students have a comprehensive understanding and can readily apply the taught material to real engineering problems.

Special Features

The MSc in Structural Integrity of Brunel University London has significant industrial involvement with contribution from the NSIRC. The MSc course will combine academic excellence with the extensive up-to-date industrial experience of TWI's experts across the many and varied disciplines that are essential to structural integrity.

Student diversity
Our students come from a variety of personal and professional backgrounds. Many have specific careers in mind, or are already practising integrity engineers working in the oil and gas or power generation sectors. This mix of experience creates an extremely valuable learning environment and excellent opportunities for networking.

Location
Located in a purpose-built facility adjacent to the headquarters of TWI, this specialist off-campus programme is solely delivered at the Granta Park science campus just outside Cambridge. The setting allows students to work alongside leading academics and industrial experts who are at the forefront of structural integrity research.

Getting to Granta Park is convenient and straightforward, with several shuttle buses travelling directly from the city centre every day. Students can enjoy life in Cambridge and benefit from the many sporting, cultural and social events this compact cosmopolitan city provides. Cambridge is also conveniently close to London, just a 45-minute journey by train, and enjoys easy access to the major London airports and road links to the rest of the country. 

Excellent facilities
The bespoke teaching, research and experimental facilities are outstanding; with state-of-the-art equipment available to support a variety of research topics specified by our industrial partners and includes:

- Industry standard commercial software including Simulia ABAQUS, MATLAB and industry standard software developed by TWI, including CrackWISE (fracture and fatigue assessment procedures (BS 7910) for engineering critical assessment and IntegriWISE (Fitness-For-Service (FFS)) assessment software for evaluating the integrity of ageing pipework, pipelines, storage tanks, boilers, pressure vessels and high temperature equipment.

- Access to joint facilities across Brunel University London and TWI, which allows component and full scale testing, which includes mechanical and fatigue testing under different environmental conditions, NDT inspection, together with access to 4D tomography and microscopy facilities.

- Access to onsite, dedicated high performance computing facility, which permits large scale computational research projects to be performed.

- Combined access to Brunel and TWI library resources, which includes the latest publications, staff journal papers and the latest design codes and standards developed by TWI.

Accommodation
With a vast student mix in Cambridge, there is accommodation available minutes from TWI.

Women in Brunel Engineering and Computing Programme

Brunel’s Women in Brunel Engineering and Computing mentoring scheme provides our female students with invaluable help and support from their industry mentors.

Accreditation

Accreditation by external professional bodies is further testament to our teaching standards and course content. Graduates are able to use this degree to satisfy part of the further learning requirements for Chartered Engineer (CEng) status with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Read less

World leading aircraft manufacturers predict the number of in-service commercial aircraft doubling to over 43,500 in the next 20 years. Our MSc Aviation Engineering and Management course will provide you with the skills, knowledge and expertise to succeed in the aviation industry.
You’ll develop key problem-solving skills within the field of aviation including airlines, corporate aviation, general aviation, component manufacturing organisations, and related industries, and civil aviation governmental agencies.

You’ll gain an understanding of the various complexities facing aviation businesses through a breadth of industry related modules. Your studies will also cover a wide variety of tools, techniques, and research methods, and how they may be applied to research and solve real-life problems within the aviation industry.

See the website http://courses.southwales.ac.uk/courses/1878-msc-aviation-engineering-and-management

What you will study

The course consists of nine modules with a key theme throughout your studies including the ethical dimensions of decision-making and interpersonal relations. This means you can be confident that you will develop personally and professionally as part of the course, ultimately making yourself more employable. You’ll study the following modules:

- Aircraft Systems Design and Optimization (10 Credits)
This module will give you a comprehensive knowledge of the systems of the aircraft, including preliminary designing of systems primary and secondary systems, operation and maintenance concepts. You will be introduced to novel engineering design methods such as Multi Objective Design (MOD) and multi-disciplinary design optimisation. Part of the module will be delivered with the support of industrial partners and experts, which will bring real scale industrial experience and interaction with the industry.

- Aviation Sustainable Engineering
This module will explore the historical and contemporary perspectives in international aviation framework while looking at the socio-economic benefits of aviation since the Chicago Convention of 1944. You will analyse current and future design and manufacturing trends in the aerospace industry.

- Condition Monitoring and Non-Destructive Testing
This module analyses condition monitoring and non-destructive testing, giving you an appreciation for the key concepts and tools in this subject. You will evaluate the use of these tools in different situations within industry and make recommendations on necessary adjustments.

- Advanced Materials and Manufacture
You will look at a range of modern engineering materials and develop an awareness of the selection criteria for aeronautical and mechanical engineering applications. You will also look at a range of “standard” and modern manufacturing processes, methods and techniques.

- Lean Maintenance Operations & Certification
This module will help you develop and understand concepts in Six Sigma, lean maintenance, operational research, reliability centred maintenance and maintenance planning. You will evaluate and critically analyse processes within highly regulated industries.

- Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering Management
Covering the principles and implementation of the safety, health and environmental management within the workplace, you will look at key concepts in human cognition and other human factors in risk management and accident/incident investigation. You will also gain an understanding of the role of stakeholder involvement in sustainable development.

- Strategic Leadership and Management for Engineers
This module will explore a range of purposes and issues surrounding successful strategic management and leadership as well as appraising a range of leadership behaviours and processes that may inspire innovation, change and continuous transformation within different organisational areas including logistics and supply chain management.

- Research Methods for Engineers
The aim of this module is to provide you with the ability to determine the most appropriate methods to collect, analyse and interpret information relevant to an area of engineering research. To provide you with the ability to critically reflect on your own and others work.

- Individual Project
You will undertake a substantial piece of investigative research work on an appropriate engineering topic and further develop your skills in research, critical analysis and development of solutions using appropriate techniques.

Learning and teaching methods

You will be taught through a variety of lectures, tutorials and practical laboratory work.

You will have 10 contact hours per week, you will also need to devote around 30 hours per week to self-study, such as conducting research and preparing for your assessments and lectures.

Work Experience and Employment Prospects

Aerospace engineering is an area where demand exceeds supply. As a highly skilled professional in aircraft maintenance engineering, you will be well placed to gain employment in this challenging industry. The aircraft industry is truly international, so there is demand not only in the UK, but throughout the world.

Careers available after graduation include aircraft maintenance planning, engineering, materials, quality assurance or compliance, technical services, logistics, NDT, method and process technical engineering, aircraft or engine leasing, aviation sales, aviation safety, reliability and maintainability, operations and planning, airworthiness, technical support, aircraft surveying, lean maintenance, certification, production planning and control.

Assessment methods

You will be continually assessed coursework or a mixture of coursework and exams. The dissertation allows you to research a specific aviation engineering topic, to illustrate your depth of knowledge, critical awareness and problem-solving skills. The dissertation has three elements of assessment: a thesis, a poster presentation, and a viva voce examination.

Facilities

The aerospace industry has become increasingly competitive and in recognising this, the University has recently invested £1.8m into its aerospace facilities.

Facilities available to our students have been fully approved by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). With access to an EASA-approved suite of practical training facilities, our students can use a range of industry-standard facilities.

Our Aerospace Centre is home to a Jetstream 31 Twin Turboprop aircraft, assembled with Honeywell TPE331 Engines and Rockwell-Collins Proline II Avionics. It has a 19-passenger configuration.

The EASA-approved suite contains training and practical workshops and laboratories. Each area contains the tools and equipment required to facilitate the instruction of either mechanical or avionic practical tasks as required by the CAA.

Students use the TQ two-shaft gas turbine rig to investigate the inner workings of a gas turbine engine by collecting real data and subsequently analysing them for engine performance.

Our sub-sonic wind tunnel is used for basic aerodynamic instruction, testing and demonstrations on various aerofoil shapes and configurations.

The single-seater, full motion, three axes Merlin MP521 flight simulator can be programmed for several aircraft types that include the Airbus A320 and the Cessna 150.

Read less