The Center for Nondestructive Evaluation (CNDE) was established in 1985 as a NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center which has expanded to support a variety of programs and partnerships.  NDE plays an important role in ensuring the safe use of engineered systems ranging from offshore oil facilities miles below the sea, to bridges and roadways we drive on every day, to planes that carry both the public and defense personnel.  CNDE has a long history of working with industry to provide cost-effective tools and solutions which address relevant problems for a variety of industrial sectors which include: Aerospace (commercial and military aviation) and Defense Systems (ground vehicles and personnel protection); Energy (nuclear, wind, fossil); Infrastructure and Transportation (bridges, roadways, dams, levees); and Petro-Chemical (offshore, processing, fuel transport piping).  Industrial partnerships with nearly 100 companies have included the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research program, single-company proprietary projects, multi-company collaborations, and CNDE-led consortia. 

  • With over 30 scientists and engineers, CNDE is the premier US research organization for the development and application of inspection and sensing technologies.  Among many accomplishments is development and commercialization of simulation models for the three major inspection modalities, eddy current (ECSIM), ultrasonics (UTSIM), and radiography (XRSIM), which are used in inspection optimization, detectability studies and training.  Additionally, extensive materials characterization studies and inspection system developments have been applied and implemented for metals, ceramics, and composites of interest to a number of industrial sectors.  Experimental and theoretical capabilities are available for the full range of inspection methods, housed in a 52,000 sq. ft. facility with over $7M in state-of-the-art research instrumentation that includes the following Non-Invasive Measurement Techniques 
    • Ultrasonics
    • Radiography
    • Electromagnetic Techniques
    • Magnetic Techniques
    • Fluorescent Penetrants
    • Thermal and Sonic IR
    • Terahertz Radiation
    • Ground Penetrating Radar
    • Novel Sensors
  • Applied to  
    • Flaw Detection
    • Flaw Characterization
    • Material Characterization
    • Process Monitoring

A growing NDE education program is also in place which includes an undergraduate NDE Minor and a graduate certificate which is available as a distance education option.  A variety of government and industrial funding sources have supported major accomplishments over the past 30+ years.