Novel Optical Sensing Technologies and Techniques for In-Situ Material and Environmental Monitoring

Description of impact

The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is responsible for maintaining the UK’s Continuous at Sea Deterrent in the age of the comprehensive test ban treaty. That responsibility requires the ability to assess and evaluate with extreme confidence the condition of highly complex assemblies comprising multiple and exotic materials. Research at Heriot-Watt University (HWU) has developed key relevant optical, non-destructive in-situ inspection techniques to provide essential physical and chemical data, within complex and costly engineering trials and long-term materials ageing experiments. AWE deploy HWU’s technologies to provide invaluable and previously unobtainable key information that AWE uses in its critical role supporting the defence and security of the UK.

Narrative

For AWE, the impact of this work has been both significant and enduring. For almost 70 years, AWE has been responsible for delivering and maintaining the UK’s nuclear deterrent. Since 1996, when the UK became a signatory to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, it has no longer been possible to assure the safety and performance of the UK nuclear deterrent using data obtained from new underground tests. In response, AWE has retained an ongoing need to develop alternative approaches to obtain empirical data relating to the operation and safety of designs, systems, components and materials. AWE’s Strategic Alliance Partnership with Heriot-Watt University has been invaluable in developing solutions to address these challenges.

The greatest individual success, in terms of impact, has been the successful deployment of optical gap gauge sensors within a unique AWE-fielded weapon sub-system engineering trial. The challenge of retrofitting an existing design with miniaturised diagnostics, capable of operating to high level of accuracy and precision, is extremely demanding. To date commercially available devices are unable to meet the deployment requirements. The unique optical sensor technology and interrogation hardware used in this trial arose directly because of the research performed at Heriot-Watt. As a direct result of this trial, AWE has been able to obtain in-situ measurements that would have been impossible to obtain through any other means, providing new understanding of how weapon sub-systems perform within dynamic environments. The most significant benefit of performing this work has been to provide increased confidence and assurance in assessments made relating to the deterrent, helping AWE to underpin the UK’s security and defense through its ability to continue to maintain Continuous at Sea Deterrence. A significant secondary benefit from this work has been the de-risking of future programme activities, enabling the scale of planned work to be reduced. This represents an estimated cost saving to the MoD of ~GBP25,000,000 within AWE’s GBP1,000,000,000 annual budget.

In addition to engineering trials, a significant amount of work performed at AWE involves research into how a wide variety of unconventional materials types behave over extended timescales. AWE has benefited from joint research with Heriot-Watt in this area to develop new knowledge and expertise. Projects have been tasked with designing, developing and maturing technology options to enable empirical data linked to chemical ageing to be obtained. These data are critical to the decades long deployment, storage and decommissioning cycles with which AWE must contend. The sensor technology developed so far has been able to facilitate a more targeted approach to future materials ageing programmes, which are costly and time consuming. Obtaining more frequent, higher quality data in an automated manner has led to a high degree of confidence that material and component properties have not changed over decades long deployment, thus significantly reducing the need for physical inspection with the associated safety benefit from reduced staff exposure to extreme-hazard materials. Fewer inspections and tests have also resulted in a reduction in the associated footprint and other overhead costs required to support these activities, again leading to a more cost-effective programme of work, saving many millions of pounds.

The highly specialized nature of these applications has necessitated in radically new approaches being identified. However, impact for these techniques expands beyond AWE’s interest as evidenced by an in-progress patent (GBP1,820,122.8), providing intellectual property for the UK Government, whilst others have been published in peer reviewed journals, enhancing AWE’s reputation and visibility internationally.

The interactions with Heriot-Watt have also led to an increase in AWE’s organizational agility, facilitating a significant amount of higher risk (in terms of success) lower Technology Research Level (TRL) research activities that would previously have been performed by AWE staff. Facilities, expertise, and capabilities made available to AWE via the alliance have further increased AWE’s operational capabilities without increasing in-house costs in terms of staff and equipment. This has enabled the company to redirect these staff to support activities that can only be performed at AWE – improving the company’s delivery to their customer, providing an indirect cost saving.

The overall span of work that has been run with Heriot-Watt has enabled AWE to demonstrate the effectiveness of our capabilities to our key customer, MoD and has significantly improved our visibility and standing with AWE’s key partners in the US.

Impact status	Achieved
Impact date	1 Aug 2013 → 31 Dec 2020
Category of impact	Economic
Impact level	National