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2014
Editorial
Titel
Editorial. Case Studies in Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation
Abstract
It is with great pleasure that I write this first editorial for Case Studies in Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation. This new journal fills a gap in our understanding of an under-served market. We have seen continual development of non-destructive testing methods, as well as broadening in their application over several decades. The dissemination of developments has been accomplished in several ways. Basic research results are presented in conferences as Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation and high-standard peer reviewed journals like Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation International and Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation. Research results and reports of a more applied nature from practitioners are reported mostly in NDT conferences, such as the World Conference in Nondestructive Testing and corresponding regional and national conference series. It has been emphasised on several occasions that the key to increase future usage of NDT lies in transfer of research results to the industrial community for practical purposes. This is a slow process, and not all ideas which prove promising in research papers achieve successful application. We feel the need for an international peer reviewed journal of high standards to disseminate reports of successful NDT ""real-world"" applications of particular interest for the community of practitioners. Other professions, such as medicine and the law, make great use of case studies, but engineers have not really formalized this channel to the same extent. Elsevier's recently begun case-study journal series stands as an attempt to transfer the case study approach to the field of Engineering. This series gives us the chance to fill the above-mentioned gap with the new journal Case Studies in Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation. It is important for Case Studies in Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation to ensure that the papers are not light in content by repeating only known knowledge in lab experiments, but to report significant case studies of interest to the practitioner community. To help to ensure a high set of publication standards for the contributed manuscripts, an Advisory Board and an Editorial board with well-known researchers and practitioners have been established. The papers of this first volume show the broadness of the field and the different types of papers possible. The spectrum reaches from deterioration monitoring of railway systems, the estimation of the integrity of soil anchors for power lines, and material characterization with laser acoustics, to novel variants of sensors for magnetic and ultrasonic measurements in challenging practical applications. I am very grateful for the authors who have submitted papers to the journal to date and to the editorial board who have worked with me on the journal. We appreciate your hard work. The journal is new and has to be shaped. For that, we welcome proposals from all sides concerning how best to improve. We look forward to working with all contributors to make the journal an important resource for all those interested in practical nondestructive testing.