About CNDT

Croucher Optical Non-destructive Testing and Quality Inspection (CNDT) Laboratory is supported by the Croucher Foundation. The objective of this foundation is to promote the standard of natural science, technology and medicine in Hong Kong through awards and grants to scientists based in and serving Hong Kong. CNDT laboratory was founded and established in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) in City University of Hong Kong in 2003 by Chair Professor Michael Y.Y. Hung and his research group.

After Prof. Y.Y. Hung retired in 2008, CNDT Laboratory is now leaded by Ir Dr. Peter W. Tse as the Director. Dr. Tse is also the Director of Smart Engineering Asset Management (SEAM) Laboratory. Dr. Djordjevich Alexander is the Deputy Director of the CNDT Laboratory. Since the SEAM laboratory has already conducted many research works and consultant jobs for the industry, and received good reputation from the participated companies, the incorporation of SEAM and CNDT laboratories will definitely enhance the quality of research outputs and contribute more benefits to both academic research fields and industry in quality inspection and engineering asset management.

Mission

The mission of this laboratory is to develop and apply optical methods for non-destructive testing (NDT) and quality inspection. Optical methods show a greater potential than traditional transducer-based techniques, as they possess many desirable advantages such as high sensitivity, non-contact, whole-field, robust, speedy, and not subject to electrical and magnetic interference, etc. The laboratory employs shearography technology, active thermography and other NDTs. These techniques provide more reliable testing methods in the quality inspection.

In CNDT Laboratory, several optical techniques and NDT have been developed such as Shearography, Holography, Thermography, Reflective projection grating, digital correlation speckle method through the efforts of Prof. Hung and CNDT research team.
In view of the serious concerns about building safety in Hong Kong and the inadequacy of the available inspection techniques, the laboratory presently aims at the development of a novel optical technique called shearography for non-destructive testing of buildings. More effective techniques are urgently needed to assess building integrity, as early detection of potential hazard is necessary to prevent catastrophic building failures.

Moreover, the CNDT Laboratory also aims to engage in the practical applications of the quality measurement and condition monitoring in different fields (especially in manufacturing industries). The quality application is significant, as the manufacturing industry is the backbone of the economy in the Pearl River Delta region. In today’s competitive market, quality measurement is a very important component in manufacturing. We try to assist in solving the quality inspection problems, e.g. products quality measurement in manufacturing industries, building evaluation in building construction, composite material applications, etc. Furthermore, another aim of this laboratory is to keep on doing research work in developing novel nondestructive testing technique in order to have better solution for the quality inspection measurement.

Contact methods:
Ir. Dr. Peter W. Tse
Department of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management
City University of Hong Kong
Tat Chee Ave., Kowloon, Hong Kong, P.R.C.
Tel:(852)34428431 or 34422330  Fax:(852)34420415 E-mail: meptse@cityu.edu.hk