Non destructive testing of lifeboats

Case Study

Lifeboats of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) operate in the most demanding sea conditions and they design and test their lifeboats accordingly. However, on occasion, the vessels suffer damage as a result of operating in these conditions. The RNLI consulted TWI when a very heavy slamming impact caused damage to the structure of a Tamar class lifeboat.

Non-destructive testing techniques were used to assess the damaged area before and after repairs to evaluate alternative methods to provide additional information on the condition of the solid glass fibre reinforced epoxy hull. While some of the hull stiffening had disbonded from the hull and suffered damage due to high local deflections, the non destructive examination proved that no damage had been caused to the hull itself and therefore limited the amount of material that had to be removed. The damaged stiffening was subsequently repaired and the lifeboat returned to service.

Results provided useful information and demonstrated the benefits of using pulsed thermography techniques.