7. Nondestructive Inspection (NDI)

This chapter discusses various nondestructive inspection () methods. Nondestructive inspection includes all methods to characterize a material without indenting, extracting samples, reducing its service capabilities or destroying it. The following chapter describes principles of NDI. Subsequently, NDI methods will be classified into seven categories namely, acoustic, potential drop, magnetic, electromagnetic, thermography, optical, and radiation methods. Each category may involve several methods where all will be discussed. For each method presented in this chapter, principles, setup and probes, nondestructive testing (), nondestructive evaluation () and current scope are discussed. Last but not least, the chapter presents NDI methods that rely on integrated sensors in the inspected structure itself, known as structural health monitoring ().