NDT for residual life assessment in Indian industry

RLA (Residual Life Assessment) activities for industrial plants and components started in India in the 1990s. This coincided with the opening up of the economy to globalisation, which required rational investment of money in new industry. RLA in India has been active in (i) the power sector (ii) the petrochemical sector and (iii) the defence sector - mainly in the air force. NDT has been recognised as an invaluable tool for RLA. There are an impressive number of organisations and institutes in India where R&D and use of NDT techniques for various aspects of RLA are practised. For RLA, both NDT for materials characterisation and NDT for flaw detection and assessment are investigated and used. The procedures for RLA and use of techniques including NDT have been standardised in India and statutory and advisory bodies monitor and control the RLA activities in many ways. This paper, apart from giving a perspective on the status of NDT and RLA in India, gives a few examples highlighting some of the important activities on the use of NDT in RLA.