THE FEASIBILITY OF PRODUCING A NON-DESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE) EXPERT SYSTEM WILL BE EVALUATED, AND A DEMONSTRABLE, PC-BASED SYSTEM WILL BE DEVELOPED.

THE FEASIBILITY OF PRODUCING A NON-DESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE) EXPERT SYSTEM WILL BE EVALUATED, AND A DEMONSTRABLE, PC-BASED SYSTEM WILL BE DEVELOPED. THE SYSTEM WILL INCORPORATE ELEMENTS OF COMPUTER-ENHANCED ULTRASONIC SIGNAL PROCESSING, FEATURING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE "LEARNING" CAPABILITY, STATE-OF-THE-ART FRACTURE MECHANICS ANALYTICAL TOOLS, AND ALL RELEVANT METALLURGICAL AND DESIGN DATA NECESSARY TO EMULATE THE DECISIONS OF THE PANEL(S) OF EXPERTS TYPICALLY INVOLVED IN GENERATING AND DISPOSITIONING NDE DATA. THE DEMONSTRATION SYSTEM WILL BE CUSTOMIZED FOR A SPECIFIC INDUSTRIAL NDE APPLICATION, AND WILL COVER ALL MAJOR STEPS IN THE DECISION PROCESS, INCLUDING: - DISCRIMINGATING DEFECTS FROM OTHER, BENIGN SIGNALS - SIZING OF DEFECTS FOR EVALUATION - DEFECT GROWTH ASSESSMENT CONSIDERING RELEVANT MATERIALS DAMAGE MECHANISMS - CRITICAL DEFECT SIZE - REMAINING USEFUL SERVICE LIFE OF THE COMPONENT OR STRUCTURE THE DEMONSTRATION SYSTEM WILL SERVE AS A MODEL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GENERAL PURPOSE, PROTOTYPE NDE EXPERT SYSTEM, TO BE DEVELOPED UNDER PHASE II, WHICH WILL HAVE THE ABILITY TO BE CUSTOMIZED OR "TRAINED" FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF NDE APPLICATIONS.