Nondestructive testing of objects of complex shape using infrared thermography: Determination of the spatiotemporal distribution of the irradiation heat flux

The existing inverse methods used to determine the heat flux density require that the forward problem and the problem domain (geometry) be known. In this paper, in order to determine the spatiotemporal heat flux density without knowing the real problem domain, we propose an approach based on temporal tracking of the thermal front. The proposed approach is particularly relevant when a three-dimensional formulation is adopted for nondestructive testing using infrared thermography. For such a formulation, heat flux density resulting from the external thermal stimulus is needed and must be determined to accurately characterize the defects and reconstruct the internal geometry of the inspected objects. The proposed approach uses only two inputs: the time-dependent temperature of the frontal surface recorded by an infrared camera and the 3D point cloud of the frontal surface collected by a 3D scanner. The method is evaluated numerically on an object of complex shape. We consider the case of pulsed thermal stimulus as well as the cases of unit step and modulated thermal stimuli. An experimental validation is performed on a cylindrical object submitted to a pulsed thermal stimulus and a modulated thermal stimulus. The results show the accuracy of the method which can easily be implemented as the initial step of the three-dimensional quantitative nondestructive testing of objects using infrared thermography.     

Frequency modulated infrared imaging for thermal characterization of nanomaterials

The paper presents frequency modulated thermal wave imaging (FMTWI) as a fast and efficient non-contact technique for in-plane thermal characterization of thin plate nanomaterials. A novel excitation signal in the form of an up-chirp is applied and the thermal response is monitored using an infrared (IR) thermography based temperature sensing system. The in-plane thermal diffusivity of any sample can be measured using the multiple phase information extracted from a single run of the experiment. This feature provides a time efficient approach for thermal measurements using infrared thermography techniques. The theoretical background and experimental details of the technique are discussed, with practical measurement of thermal diffusivity of an empty anodic alumina (AAO) template in direction perpendicular to the nanochannel axis, in support.     

Thermal wave scattering by two overlapping and parallel cylinders

In this paper an analytical solution of the temperature of an opaque material containing two overlapping and parallel subsurface cylinders, illuminated by a modulated light beam, is presented. The method is based on the expansion of plane and cylindrical thermal waves in series of Bessel and Hankel functions. This model is addressed to the study of heat propagation in composite materials with interconnection between inclusions, as is the case of inverse opals and fiber reinforced composites. Measurements on calibrated samples using lock-in infrared thermography confirm the validity of the model.     

亚表面异质缺陷对功能梯度材料表面温度场的影响

基于双曲型热传导方程,采用镜像法和波函数展开法,求解了含亚表面异质圆柱缺陷的半无限功能梯度材料的表面温度场,给出了功能梯度材料中热波散射的一般解.分析了亚表面异质圆柱缺陷的几何参数(如埋藏深度)和热物理参数(如导热系数、热扩散长度、热扩散率及热弛豫时间等)对功能梯度材料表面温度场的影响.温度波由调制的超短脉冲激光在功能梯度材料表面激发,异质圆柱缺陷表面的边界条件为导热边界.研究结果可望为功能梯度材料的红外热波无损检测、导热反问题提供计算方法和参考数据.     

Thermal diffusivity measurement of insulating material using infrared thermography

The article presents the results of research developing methods for determining the coefficient of thermal diffusivity of thermal insulating material. This method applies a periodic heating as an excitation and an infrared camera is used to measure the temperature distribution on the surface of tested material. In simulation study, the usefulness of known analytical solution of the inverse problem was examined using a three-dimensional model of the phenomenon of heat diffusion in the sample of tested material. To solve the coefficient inverse problem, an approach using artificial neural network is proposed. The measurements were performed on an experimental setup equipped with a ThermaCAM PM 595 infrared camera and frame grabber. The experiment allowed to verify the chosen 3D model of heat diffusion phenomenon and to determine suitability of the proposed test method.     

红外热不对称分析用于面神经功能损伤的客观评估

健康人体的温度分布存在一种双侧对称性,当面神经功能受损时,将改变这种热分布的对称性。人体热量大多通过红外辐射的形式散发,因此利用红外热成像技术可以有效捕捉这种红外热辐射分布的改变。本文提出一种新的热不对称分析的方法——有效热面积比,即计算面部特定区域与对侧区域的温差乘以温度异常区面积与总面积之比。利用这种方法对面神经功能损伤的患者和健康人群作对照性试验,结果显示:此方法的特异性和敏感性平均为0.90和0.87,比常规方法提高了7%和26%,有效热面积比与面神经功能的损伤程度正相关,平均为0.664。因此,关于诊断和评估面神经功能,红外热成像是一种有力的工具,有效热面积比是一项高效的临床指标。     

非线性拟合方法用于透射式脉冲红外技术测试碳/碳复合材料的热扩散系数

为了测试碳/碳复合材料的热扩散系数,本文提出了非线性拟合用于透射式脉冲红外检测的数据处理方法.非线性拟合通过循环迭代的方法持续调整拟合参数,让理论值不断逼近实验值,直至获得最佳结果.传统的透射式脉冲红外成像技术利用半高时间法测试材料的热扩散系数,但通常会受到采集时间不足和信噪比差的限制.本文提出的非线性拟合方法可以有效消除或减弱这两种影响.在使用该方法之前,首先选用常见的304不锈钢评估了该方法的测量精度及拟合长度对测试结果的影响.结果显示304不锈钢的测量精度达到0.3%,且当拟合长度不小于半高时间法采集时间的1/5时,拟合长度对非线性拟合结果影响很小.随后使用该拟合方法测试了不同厚度的碳/碳复合材料试件,并通过热扩散系数测量结果分析了试件之间的热参数差异性和材料自身的均匀性.     

Study of Phase Change and Supercooling in Micro-Channels by Infrared Thermography

The present work presents a fast and simple new experimental method, designed to enhance the observation and characterization of thermal phenomena at microscale. Supercooling of water was carried out in micro-channels and recorded with a high-frequency infrared camera. The method is based on the coupling of microfluidics, infrared thermography, and inverse techniques. The objective is to extract a maximum of information from the experiment to perform advanced characterization of the system. First, a thermal modeling of such a system was written, then the image processing from infrared recordings allowed estimating the thermal properties (diffusivity) and the source term (energy released by the phase change). The novelty of the approach is the ability of measuring the heat released by the phase change and using this displacement to calculate the ice front propagation velocity and thermal properties. This method is appropriate for many other applications and is mainly devoted to the characterization of fluids during phase change at microscale.     

基于反射式脉冲红外热成像法的定量测量方法研究

本文提出了一种利用反射式脉冲热成像法测量缺陷深度、热扩散系数或缺陷界面热波反射系数的方法. 首先,介绍了脉冲热成像法的基本原理以及定量测量算法.其次,利用304不锈钢制作了平底孔试件 并预埋了四种不同物质并进行了实验,给出在不同条件下对缺陷深度、热扩散系数或缺陷界面热波 反射系数测量的结果.实验结果显示实际测量值与其他方法测量值基本符合, 误差范围在±5%以内, 并讨论了影响测量精度的原因.     

利用Landsat热红外数据研究1985年—2015年北京市冬季热场分布

由于北京城市中心区冬季供暖、汽车尾气、工业生产等因素的影响,以及冬季植被覆盖减少导致地表热惯量降低,致使北京市冬季地表热场与其他季节差异明显。冬季城市热场分布直接影响冬季大气颗粒物等污染物的扩散速度,因此,研究热场分布对了解城市热场在大气颗粒物污染中的贡献具有重要的意义。首先利用MODTRAN大气辐射传输模型计算大气透过率、大气上行辐射与大气下行辐射三个关键参数,通过构建查找表解算热红外波段辐射传输方程。使用数据模拟的手段评价了该方法的精度,结果表明,当比辐射率和水汽分别在±0.005和±0.6的误差范围内波动时,温度反演的误差分别小于0.348和2.117 K,表明该方法可达到较高的反演精度。选择长时间序列Landsat TM、ETM+数据,进行地表温度反演,得到1985年—2015年北京市的地表温度。基于反演的地表温度分析了北京市热场的时空分布。结果表明,北京冬季热场分布在空间上可分为四个层次：北京市二环内温度较高、二环到五环内低温环状特征明显、外围郊区温度高以及北京西部的山区温度最低;随着近30年来北京市的快速发展,热场分布在长时间序列中发生了明显的改变：随着北京城市的不断扩张,环状低温区域也不断扩大,从三环扩展到六环;城市二环以内热岛效应随时间推移而增强,且分布范围扩大。     

太赫兹激励的红外热波检测技术

本文的目的在于探索一种新的适用于红外热波检测技术的热激励方式——太赫兹(THz)热激励. 文中介绍了THz波周期性热激励的热传导理论模型; 尝试利用返波振荡器(返波管backward wave oscillator, BWO)太赫兹源对一块碳纤维基底吸波涂层板进行周期性THz热激励, 红外热像仪连续观测和记录试件表面温场变化, Canny边缘算法处理热图像显示缺陷; 检测结果与闪光灯脉冲激励的结果进行比较, 讨论了太赫兹波激励红外热波检测技术可能的优势. 实现了THz技术与红外热波无损检测技术的结合.     

Measurement of thermal diffusivity by magnetic resonance imaging

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) may be used for monitoring temperature changes within samples based on measurements of relaxation times, the diffusion coefficient of liquids, proton resonance frequency or phase shifts. Such methods may be extended to the explicit measurement of the thermal diffusivity of materials by NMR imaging. A method based on measuring nuclear spin phase shifts or changes in the equilibrium nuclear magnetization has been developed for measuring transient thermal diffusion effects and thermal diffusivity with potential applications in NMR thermotherapy and materials science. In this method, a thermal pulse is applied to a medium, and the resultant temporal variations of the nuclear spin phase or of the magnitude of the nuclear magnetization produced by the thermal pulse are monitored at a spatial distance. The results obtained on common fluids agree well with the data from other methods.     

Inspection on SiC coated carbon–carbon composite with subsurface defects using pulsed thermography

An investigation on SiC coated carbon–carbon (C/C) composite plates has been undertaken by pulsed thermography. The heat transfer model has been built and the finite element method (FEM) is applied to solve the thermal model. The simulation results show that defects with DA/DP smaller than one can hardly be detected by an infrared camera with the sensitivity of 0.02 °C. Certificated experiments were performed on the built pulsed thermography system. The thermal wave signals have been processed by subtracting background image method (SBIM), pulsed phase thermography (PPT), and temperature–time logarithm fitting method (TtLFM). The limit DA/DP of defects in SiC coated C/C composite plates with the thickness of 6 mm that can be detected by pulsed thermography with the presented signal analysis algorithms has been obtained.     

Infrared radiation emitted due to scanning of a hot spot as a probe of hidden defects

Specially created subsurface defects in a sample are detected using a high resolution infrared camera FLIR SC7000. A scanning hot air (about 110 °C) nozzle is applied to introduce additional energy in a researched sample. The hidden defect has an increased temperature in comparison with the surrounding area that is a result of changed emissivity and thermal diffusivity. The suggested method is compared with pulse thermography which uses a xenon lamp for excitation.     

Improvement of building wall surface temperature measurements by infrared thermography

By using quantitative thermal scanning of building surface structures, it is possible to access the temperature field. For further calculation of the heat flux exchanged by these structures with the environment, one must quantify as finely as possible the temperature field on the bodies surfaces. For this purpose we have to take into account that real bodies are not black, which implies that a part of the ambient radiation received by the infrared camera detectors is reflected radiation. In this paper, we present a method to quantify the reflected flux by using an infrared mirror, which allows large surface temperature measurements by infrared thermography under near-ambient conditions with improved accuracy. In order to validate the method, an experimental study was carried out on a multi-layer wall, which simulated an insulation default. A good agreement was noticed between the thermocouple temperatures and the infrared corrected ones. Then, the method is applied to outdoor measurements.     

A simple method for defect area detection using active thermography

In this paper a simple method for defect area detection in the subsurface layer of materials was presented. The method uses active infrared thermography. A statistical detectivity ratio was introduced for a quantitative characterization of areas containing defects. The described algorithm of defect area detection was tested for a material with a low thermal diffusivity. The results of experimental and simulation investigations are presented. It was stated that the statistical detectivity ratio can be used to detect regions of defect presence, even for the non-uniformly heated surfaces.     

Noncontact measurement of the thermal diffusivity of IR semi-transparent and semiconducting n-CdMgSe mixed crystals by means of the photothermal radiometry

In this paper we present results of noncontact measurements of the thermal diffusivity of infrared semi-transparent n-CdMgSe mixed semiconductor crystals by means of the photothermal radiometry (PTR) in a transmission configuration. In order to overcome an influence of the infrared semi-transparency and plasma waves on the PTR signal from n-CdMgSe mixed crystals the samples were covered by thin aluminum foils on both sides. The thermal diffusivities of n-CdMgSe mixed crystals were estimated from PTR phase frequency characteristics using a well-known formula. It was found that the obtained results are underestimated in comparison to thermal diffusivities estimated from the PPE (photopyro-electric) measurements. A three layer model of a PTR signal was applied in order to estimate an error in determination of the thermal diffusivity of a sample caused by aluminum foils.     

Improvement of building wall surface temperature measurements by infrared thermography

By using quantitative thermal scanning of building surface structures, it is possible to access the temperature field. For further calculation of the heat flux exchanged by these structures with the environment, one must quantify as finely as possible the temperature field on the bodies surfaces. For this purpose we have to take into account that real bodies are not black, which implies that a part of the ambient radiation received by the infrared camera detectors is reflected radiation. In this paper, we present a method to quantify the reflected flux by using an infrared mirror, which allows large surface temperature measurements by infrared thermography under near-ambient conditions with improved accuracy. In order to validate the method, an experimental study was carried out on a multi-layer wall, which simulated an insulation default. A good agreement was noticed between the thermocouple temperatures and the infrared corrected ones. Then, the method is applied to outdoor measurements.     

红外热波成像法测量固体材料热扩散率

本文通过采用连续激光调制对试样周期加热产生稳定的温度波动和红外扫描动态测温的红外热波成像法获得温度波动的相位和幅值分布，测量固体材料热扩散率。介绍了红外热波成像法的测量原理和实验系统，推导了热扩散率测量的相位法、幅值法和相位－幅值复合法。对不锈钢和纯镍试样的热扩散率进行了测试。测量结果表明，该方法具有较高的精度。     

Improving spatio-temporal resolution of infrared images to detect thermal activity of defect at the surface of inorganic glass

This paper proposes a noise suppression methodology to improve the spatio-temporal resolution of infrared images. The methodology is divided in two steps. The first one consists in removing the noise from the temporal signal at each pixel. Three basic temporal filters are considered for this purpose: average filter, cost function minimization (FIT) and short time Fast Fourier Transform approach (STFFT). But while this step effectively reduces the temporal signal noise at each pixel, the infrared images may still appear noisy. This is due to a random distribution of a residual offset value of pixels signal. Hence in the second step, the residual offset is identified by considering thermal images for which no mechanical loading is applied. In this case, the temperature variation field is homogeneous and the value of temperature variation at each pixel is theoretically equal to zero. The method is first tested on synthetic images built from infrared computer-generated images combined with experimental noise. The results demonstrate that this approach permits to keep the spatial resolution of infrared images equal to 1 pixel. The methodology is then applied to characterize thermal activity of a defect at the surface of inorganic glass submitted to cyclic mechanical loading. The three basic temporal filters are quantitatively compared and contrasted. Results obtained demonstrate that, contrarily to a basic spatio-temporal approach, the denoising method proposed is suitable to characterize low thermal activity combined to strong spatial gradients induced by cyclic heterogeneous deformations.