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DSTO - AIP Physics Scholarships

Kelly completed a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Physics at The University of Melbourne. After completing her degree, she obtained a job at DSTO as a professional officer and started working on a project which involved the use of tritium to detect cracks and defects in aircraft structures.

Kelly Tsoi, DSTO Physicist

After working for two years, she obtained a cadetship in which DSTO sponsored her to study for her PhD at The University of Sydney and the Catholic University of Leuven, in Belgium. Her research involved embedding shape memory alloys into composite structures and investigating the thermomechanical behaviour of the new materials. On completion of her PhD, she returned to DSTO as a research scientist and has since been working in the Smart Materials and Advanced Diagnostics group of the Air Vehicles Division, researching advanced thermographic techniques for non-destructive inspection of aircraft structures.

"All of the projects that I have worked on in DSTO have had a strong physics basis, from materials science, electromagnetism and nuclear physics to electronics and data acquisition. One of the skills that I acquired during my undergraduate Physics and PhD degrees, which is probably one of the most important, is the ability to do autonomous research. This has enabled me to learn, understand and quickly adapt to new and developing areas of science and technology.

"The research areas that I have been involved in over the past 10 years or so, although broadly related, are actually quite varied. These include the following: Tritium autoradiography which uses tritium (radioactive hydrogen) to detect damage in structures. The tritium acts as a tracer which becomes trapped in possible damage sites. The tritium decays, emitting beta particles, which can then be detected by exposing the treated area to nuclear emulsion film.  Research into the properties of shape memory alloys; interesting materials which can be deformed and remember their shape on heating, has also been carried out. This eventually led to my PhD topic which involved embedding these shape memory alloys into composites and looking at the transformational and thermomechanical behaviour of the new materials.

"Shape memory alloys can be used to reduce the amount of impact damage in composite structures.They can also be used in adaptive structures in which the shape of that structure can be altered by heating the shape memory alloys. The majority of my current work involves research into the use of advanced thermographic techniques for non-destructive evaluation of defects in structures. This involves heating a structure using an external device such as high powered flash lamps (flash thermography) or acoustic energy (sonic thermography). The heat distribution and heat flow in the structure can be measured using an infra-red (IR) camera. With flash thermography the elevated surface temperature initiates a strong through-thickness heat flow. Any defects that are present will slow down the cooling rate. This produces a difference in surface temperature which can then be detected with IR imaging. With sonic thermography acoustic waves interact with tightly closed defect surfaces to produce frictional heating. The heat emitted from the surface can then be detected with an IR camera. It is important to have a knowledge of basic electromagnetism and wave theory in order to develop a better understanding of the processes involved, as well as control, electronics and data acquisition techniques in order to optimise the operation of the equipment."