GROWTH – DEDICATED CALL – 10/00
TOPIC IV.27
The European virtual institute for structural integrity
1. CONFORMITY WITH THE WORK PROGRAMME
Network proposals are requested for this topic which is in conformity with objective
1.1.3-7.2 "Setting up of Virtual Institutes" section of the activity "Support to Research
Infrastructure" within the GROWTH programme, for which Expressions of Interest
have been called. The topic of Structural Integrity is aligned with Key Action 1:
Innovative Products, Processes and Organisation; and with Key Action 3: Land
Transport and Marine Technologies; and Key Action 4: New Perspectives in
Aeronautics, and also Generic Activity 1A: Materials and their Technologies.
Structural integrity is a generic activity associated with the reliability and safety of
products, components and machines varying in scale from micro-machines to ships.
2. KEYWORDS
Design/design technologies, deterioration/failure mechanisms, exploitation and
diffusion of results, life cycle impacts, primary structures, reliability, research
networking, structural analysis, technology transfer.
3. SUMMARY OF OBJECTIVES AND JUSTIFICATION
Objectives
The main objectives are:
 to improve the international competitiveness of European industry through close
collaboration and intensive information exchange between industry, universities and
research organisations in the area of structural integrity;
 to improve technology transfer from research laboratories into industrial enterprises
in the areas of structural reliability, life cycle prediction, and failure analysis;
 to promote the dissemination and advancement of knowledge in structural integrity,
particularly through cross-fertilisation of techniques and procedures between
industrial sectors;
 to lower barriers for SMEs requiring access to structural integrity technology
Justification
Research and development of structural integrity technology has been the domain of
industries for which it is a safety-critical issue, for instance the nuclear and aerospace
sectors. Other industrial sectors have been relatively slow to adopt structural integrity
techniques and procedures, which offer the opportunity to optimise designs, improve
reliability and reduce economic costs. An opportunity exists to exploit the rich
European expertise in structural integrity for strategic products such as microelectronics
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through to medical prostheses, and automotive structures through to aerospace
components.
4. BACKGROUND
Structural integrity is concerned with the fitness of primary structures within machines
and products to perform their load-bearing role efficiently and reliably for the designed
lifetime. This is achieved through a combination of simulation, experiment and analysis
based on the principles of fracture mechanics, mechanics of materials and materials
science. Procedures are well-established and enshrined in industry-specific standards,
such as those produced by nuclear inspectorates and aviation regulatory authorities.
Research continues to develop techniques to allow the analysis of advanced materials
and in-situ monitoring of performance. Much of this work has been performed in
laboratories closely associated with a small number of industrial sectors including the
nuclear and aerospace industries. Examples of this include the application of threedimensional photoelasticity to complex aero-engine parts in order to evaluate stress
intensity factors which can be used to validate computer simulations and to support life
cycle analyses; or recent work on the tearing of tough materials.
Many failures of products arise from causes that are well understood by experts in
structural integrity, but have been ignored by designers through a lack of awareness or
expertise. Consequently there are significant gains in competitiveness to be achieved
through the cross-sectoral dissemination of knowledge and good practice.
5. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS
Optimised design of primary structures leads to lighter and more elegant products that
are also lower cost and more reliable. These attributes provide clear economic benefits.
Amongst the driving forces for the development of structural integrity technology have
been pan-European industries such as steel production and aerospace. The mechanisms
have included RTD programmes in previous EU frameworks, as well as European
professional associations, the result of which is collective possession of expertise by a
number of research institutions across Europe. The virtual institute will bring together a
critical mass of such institutions to give a higher profile to the technology and to
provide a comprehensive service to industry. The benefits that will accrue from the
successful establishment of the virtual institute include:
 improvements in competitiveness of European products;
 reduction in loss of production and services resulting from mechanical failures;
 reduction in environmental damage attributable to mechanical failures;
 increased safety for a wide range of products;
 easier access to leading edge structural integrity technology for industrial
organisations including SMEs;
 increased European skill-base in the technologies and procedures associated with
structural integrity;
 more effective identification and planning of strategic research in the area of
structural integrity to meet the needs of all industries;
establishment of a web-based database of experts and laboratories available to provide
technical support to companies.
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6. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL OBJECTIVES
The overall objective will be to increase the rate of exploitation of structural integrity
technology in European industry. The virtual institute will achieve this through a
number of means resulting in a more rapid and effective matching of user needs with
available expertise, an increase in the knowledge and awareness of the technology and
the promotion of good practice. The mechanisms for achieving these outcomes could
include:
 establishing a high profile for structural integrity through interactions with
professional and trade bodies
 establishing a major internet presence to support the activities of the Virtual Institute
and the structural integrity community in the European Union;
 disseminating structural integrity technology through the provision of seminars,
courses, conferences and publications;
 creating a network of local experts available to give assistance to SMEs and other
organisations in their locality;
 acting as a facilitator to arrange access to major research facilities for industry so
that their needs are met as effectively as possible;
 co-ordinating new developments and research in structural integrity, in particular to
support the needs of new user sectors;
 maintaining a practical and economically sound relationship between all transEuropean partners.
7. TIME SCALE
After the setting up period, the Institute should be self-financing through, for example
providing services and consultancy for European customers – industry, including
SME’s, and governmental bodies - on a commercial basis. The access threshold should
be kept as low as possible, to stimulate customers to profit from the facilities, knowhow, and technologies available in the European Virtual Institute for Structural
Integrety.
Proposers should provide details of the expected revenue against a time scale for the
network.
8. IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The proposers’ consortium should clearly demonstrate the proficiency of all partners,
and should preferably have experience in collaboration on the European level in the
field, e.g. by participation in relevant international programmes.
Proposers must specify in detail the activities that they consider to be relevant for the
Virtual Institute and possibly provide examples of typical requests that they are able to
provide solution for.
Proposers should note that submissions must follow the network modality and the
allowable cost structure.
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Proposers must provide detailed information in the form of business plan of how their
network will become self-supporting at the end of the network contract. The envisaged
future legal structures (not required at the launch) should be described.
In addition the proposal should contain a prioritised list of the initial target sectors
pursued.