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destructive testing NDTNondestructive testing (also called NDT, nondestructive evaluation, NDE, and nondestructive inspection, NDI) is testing that does not destroy the test object. While destructive testing usually provides a more reliable assessment of the state of the test object, destruction of the test object usually makes this type of test more costly to the test object's owner than nondestructive testing. Destructive testing is also inappropriate in many circumstances, such as forensic investigation. That there is a tradeoff between the cost of the test and its reliability favors a strategy in which most test objects are inspected nondestructively; destructive testing is performed on a sampling of test objects that is drawn randomly for the purpose of characterizing the testing reliability of the nondestructive test. The content of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing's journal Materials Evaluation and of the textbook Nondestructive Evaluation: A Tool for Design, Manufacturing and Service suggests a smaller scope for the discipline called "nondestructive testing" than is implied by its label. For example, the discipline appears to exclude nondestructive biomedical tests, such as urinalysis. |