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.     

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.     

In situ assessment of structural timber elements of a historic building by infrared thermography and ultrasonic velocity

The infrared thermography (IRT) and the ultrasonic velocity measurements (UVM) promise to be particularly important to assess the state of deterioration and the adequacy of the boundary and microclimatic conditions for timber elements. These non-destructive methods supported by laboratory analyses of timber samples were conducted on a 13th century monument, Aslanhane Mosque in Ankara, Turkey. The combined interpretation of the results was done to assess the condition of structural timber elements in terms of their state of preservation, the dampness problems and the recent incompatible repairs affecting them. Results indicated that moist areas in the structure were associated with roof drainage problems and the repairs undertaken with cement-based mortars and plasters and oil-based paints. Juxtaposition of the IRT and UVM together with laboratory analyses was found to be useful to assess the soundness of timber, enhanced the accuracy and effectiveness of the survey and facilitated to build up the urgent and long-term conservation programs.     

Effect of perspiration on skin temperature measurements by infrared thermography and contact thermometry during aerobic cycling

The aim of the present study was to compare infrared thermography and thermal contact sensors for measuring skin temperature during cycling in a moderate environment. Fourteen cyclists performed a 45-min cycling test at 50% of peak power output. Skin temperatures were simultaneously recorded by infrared thermography and thermal contact sensors before and immediately after cycling activity as well as after 10 min cooling-down, representing different skin wetness and blood perfusion states. Additionally, surface temperature during well controlled dry and wet heat exchange (avoiding thermoregulatory responses) using a hot plate system was assessed by infrared thermography and thermal contact sensors. In human trials, the inter-method correlation coefficient was high when measured before cycling (r = 0.92) whereas it was reduced immediately after the cycling (r = 0.82) and after the cooling-down phase (r = 0.59). Immediately after cycling, infrared thermography provided lower temperature values than thermal contact sensors whereas it presented higher temperatures after the cooling-down phase. Comparable results as in human trials were observed for hot plate tests in dry and wet states. Results support the application of infrared thermography for measuring skin temperature in exercise scenarios where perspiration does not form a water film.     

Computerized tomography technique for reconstruction of obstructed temperature field in infrared thermography

Infrared thermography is a rapid, non-invasive and full-field technique for non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E). With all the achievements on IR instrumentation and image processing techniques attained, it has been extended far beyond simple hot-spot detection and becomes one of the most promising NDT&E techniques in the last decades. It has achieved increasing acceptance in different sectors include medical imaging, manufacturing component fault detection and buildings diagnostic. However, one limitation of IR thermography is that the testing results are greatly affected by object surface emissivity. Surface with various emissivities may lead to difficult discrimination between area of defect and area with different emissivity. Therefore, many studies have been carried out on eliminating emissivity, for example, the time derivative approach, lock-in processing and differential contrast measurements. In these methods, sequence of themo-data/images are recorded and being processed in order to eliminate differences of emissivity. Another problem of IR thermography is that any obstruction may limit stimulations and imaging which leads to the observation of unclear defect image. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an algorithm based on the principle of computerized tomography which permits the reconstruction of unavailable/partially available temperature distribution of the affected area using the measured surrounding temperature field. In the process, a set of imaginary rays are projected from many different directions across the area. For each ray, integration of the temperature derivatives along the ray is equals to the temperature difference between the boundary points intercepted by the ray. Therefore, a set of linear equations can be established by considering the multiple rays. Each equation expresses the unknown temperature derivatives in the affected area in terms of the measured boundary temperature data. Solution of the set of simultaneous equations yields unknown thermal distribution in the area which needs to be reconstructed. Based on the proposed computerized tomography reconstruction (CTR) technique, deviated temperature data due to missing temperature data hidden by obstacle can be reconstructed. With further development, this technique may have the potential to be applied in the reconstruction of any smooth physical fields like phase information in optical techniques.     

Evaluation of topographical variation in ocular surface temperature by functional infrared thermography

The objective of this work is to evaluate topographical variation in the ocular surface temperature (OST) among the young, elderly and the subjects wearing contact lens using thermographic methodology. We recorded thermographic sequence lasting of 25 s for each eye. The ocular region in each of the thermal images in the sequence was identified and warped into a standard form. Then, the warped sequence was divided into a number of sub-sequences. A differential image which is an image matrix was obtained from each of these sub-sequences, by subtracting thermal images within the sub-sequence. And the histogram of the differential image was modelled by Gaussian mixture model to discriminate eyelashes from the ocular surface for every thermal image in the sub-sequence. Later, thermal data of eyelashes were eliminated in every thermal image and statistical analysis was performed on the sequences. Finally, topographical profile of each subject group was approximated by equations and illustrated using various temperature profiles. The ocular surface of the young subject was observed to be the warmest, and tear film was determined to play a major role in the topographical and temporal variations in OST. Significant topographical variation was observed among subject groups. Based on our compiled average OST profile (AOSTP), the maximum predictability of the bioheat simulation on ocular model can reach up to 90%.     

Skin temperature evaluation by infrared thermography: Comparison of image analysis methods

Body temperature in medicine is a parameter indicating abnormal activity of human tissues; it is used to diagnose specific pathologies or as an indicator of the muscle activity during physical exercise.Temperature measurements through infrared thermography have the advantages to be non-invasive and to record temperature data simultaneously from different points on a wide area of the body.The difference between the values of temperature traditionally measured with contact probes or standard technique and the ones measured by thermal imaging lies in the fact that the first produces a scalar value, while the second gives a distribution over a surface. The analysis of thermographic images, with the goal of obtaining a temperature value representative of a specific area, is usually performed by different methods of averaging temperature values inside a selected Region of Interest (Troi and Tot). In this paper the authors present a critical comparison between the methods mainly used in literature in the specific case of a muscular group of calves on a population of 33 healthy subjects. Here, the authors describe an alternative method (Tmax) to obtain a temperature value of a specific area based on maximal temperature detection instead of considering the average temperature on the selected area. No meaningful difference in mean temperature between Troi and Ttot was found (p = 0.9), while temperature values calculated using Tmax were higher than the above methods (p < 0.001). The high correlation among the compared methods prove that they can equally represent temperature trends in cutaneous thermographic analyses.     

Surface temperature measurement of the plasma facing components with the multi-spectral infrared thermography diagnostics in tokamaks

For the long-pulse high-confinement discharges in tokamaks, the equilibrium of plasma requires a contact with the first wall materials. The heat flux resulting from this interaction is of the order of 10 MW/m² for steady state conditions and up to 20 MW/m² for transient phases. The monitoring on surface temperatures of the plasma facing components (PFCs) is a major concern to ensure safe operation and to optimize performances of experimental operations on large fusion facilities. Furthermore, this measurement is also required to study the physics associated to the plasma material interactions and the heat flux deposition process. In tokamaks, infrared (IR) thermography systems are routinely used to monitor the surface temperature of the PFCs. This measurement requires an accurate knowledge of the surface emissivity. However, and particularly for metallic materials such as tungsten, this emissivity value can vary over a wide range with both the surface condition and the temperature itself, which makes instantaneous measurement challenging. In this context, the multi-spectral infrared method appears as a very promising alternative solution. Indeed, the system has the advantage to carry out a non-intrusive measurement on thermal radiation while evaluating surface temperature without requiring a mandatory surface emissivity measurement.In this paper, a conceptual design for the multi-spectral infrared thermography is proposed. The numerical study of the multi-channel system based on the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) nonlinear curve fitting is applied. The numerical results presented in this paper demonstrate the design allows for measurements over a large temperature range with a relative error of less than 10%. Furthermore, laboratory experiments have been performed from 200 °C to 740 °C to confirm the feasibility for temperature measurements on stainless steel and tungsten. In these experiments, the unfolding results from the multi-channel detection provide good performance on temperature measurement, which supports our numerical evaluation and demonstrates the potential feasibility for metallic surface high temperature measurement with this method.     

Skin temperature evaluation by infrared thermography: Comparison of two image analysis methods during the nonsteady state induced by physical exercise

The most common method to derive a temperature value from a thermal image in humans is the calculation of the average of the temperature values of all the pixels confined within a demarcated boundary defined region of interest (ROI). Such summary measure of skin temperature is denoted as Troi in this study. Recently, an alternative method for the derivation of skin temperature from the thermal image has been developed. Such novel method (denoted as Tmax) is based on an automated (software-driven) selection of the warmest pixels within the ROI. Troi and Tmax have been compared under basal, steady-state conditions, resulting very well correlated and characterized by a bias of approximately 1 °C (Tmax > Troi).Aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between Tmax and Troi under the nonsteady-state conditions induced by physical exercise. Thermal images of quadriceps of 13 subjects performing a squat exercise were recorded for 120 s before (basal steady state) and for 480 s after the initiation of the exercise (nonsteady state). The thermal images were then analysed to extract Troi and Tmax. Troi and Tmax changed almost in parallel during the nonstead -state. At a closer inspection, it was found that during the nonsteady state the bias between the two methods slightly increased (from 0.7 to 1.1 °C) and the degree of association between them slightly decreased (from Pearson’s r = 0.96 to 0.83). Troi and Tmax had different relationships with the skin temperature histogram. Whereas Tmax was the mean, which could be interpreted as the centre of gravity of the histogram, Tmax was related with the extreme upper tail of the histogram. During the nonsteady state, the histogram increased its spread and became slightly more asymmetric. As a result, Troi deviated a little from the 50th percentile, while Tmax remained constantly higher than the 95th percentile. Despite their differences, Troi and Tmax showed a substantial agreement in assessing the changes in skin temperature following physical exercise. Further studies are needed to clarify the relationship existing among Tmax, Troi and cutaneous blood flow during physical exercise.     

Evaluation of thermal load during laser corneal refractive surgery using infrared thermography

Infrared thermography is used for evaluation of the mean temperature as a measure of thermal load during corneal refractive surgery. An experimental method to determine emissivity and to calibrate the thermografic system is presented. In a case study on the porcine eye two dimensional temperature distributions with lateral resolution of 170 μm and line scans with temporal resolution of 13 μs are discussed with respect to the meaning of mean temperature. Using the newest generation of surgery equipment it is shown, that the mean temperature rise can be kept below 5 °C during myopic laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) treatments corresponding to an aberration-free correction of ?2.75 diopter.     

Neonatal infrared thermography imaging: Analysis of heat flux during different clinical scenarios

IntroductionAn accurate skin temperature measurement of Neonatal Infrared Thermography (NIRT) imaging requires an appropriate calibration process for compensation of external effects (e.g. variation of environmental temperature, variable air velocity or humidity). Although modern infrared cameras can perform such calibration, an additional compensation is required for highly accurate thermography. This compensation which corrects any temperature drift should occur during the NIRT imaging process. We introduce a compensation technique which is based on modeling the physical interactions within the measurement scene and derived the detected temperature signal of the object.Materials and methodsIn this work such compensation was performed for different NIRT imaging application in neonatology (e.g. convective incubators, kangaroo mother care (KMC), and an open radiant warmer). The spatially distributed temperatures of 12 preterm infants (average gestation age 31 weeks) were measured under these different infant care arrangements (i.e. closed care system like a convective incubator, and open care system like kangaroo mother care, and open radiant warmer).ResultsAs errors in measurement of temperature were anticipated, a novel compensation method derived from infrared thermography of the neonate’s skin was developed. Moreover, the differences in temperature recording for the 12 preterm infants varied from subject to subject. This variation could be arising from individual experimental setting applied to the same region of interest over the neonate’s body. The experimental results for the model-based corrections is verified over the selected patient group.ConclusionThe proposed technique relies on applying model-based correction to the measured temperature and reducing extraneous errors during NIRT. This application specific method is based on different heat flux compartments present in neonatal thermography scene. Furthermore, these results are considered to be groundwork for further investigation, especially when using NIRT imaging arrangement with additional compensation settings together with reference temperature measurements.     

Through-transmission laser welding of polymers – temperature field modeling and infrared investigation

The purpose of the present study is to estimate the weldability of a polymeric material couple according to their thermal and optical properties. A first model based on Mie theory and Monte Carlo method describes the laser beam behavior in semi-transparent media and makes it possible to approximate the laser power distribution at the interface of the two materials. A second model based on finite element method permits the temperature field estimation into both parts to be welded. The results are validated by infrared thermography.     

Application of infrared lock-in thermography for the quantitative evaluation of bruises on pears

An infrared lock-in thermography technique was adjusted for the detection of early bruises on pears. This mechanical damage is usually difficult to detect in the early stage after harvested using conventional visual sorting or CCD sensor-based imaging processing methods. We measured the thermal emission signals from pears using a highly sensitive mid-infrared thermal camera. These images were post-processed using a lock-in method that utilized the periodic thermal energy input to the pear. By applying the lock-in method to infrared thermography, the detection sensitivity and signal to noise ratio were enhanced because of the phase-sensitive narrow-band filtering effect. It was also found that the phase information of thermal emission from pears provides good metrics with which to identify quantitative information about both damage size and damage depth for pears. Additionally, a photothermal model was implemented to investigate the behavior of thermal waves on pears under convective conditions. Theoretical results were compared to experimental results. These results suggested that the proposed lock-in thermography technique and resultant phase information can be used to detect mechanical damage to fruit, especially in the early stage of bruising.     

Recent progress in diagnosing the reliability of electrical equipment by using infrared thermography

Infrared thermography (IRT) has gained more attention and become an interesting method in electrical preventive maintenance due to its high precision and sensitivity imaging characteristics. This paper provides a review of the application of IRT for diagnosing electrical equipment, including their thermal anomalies and methods of measurement. Improvement of the inspection techniques is highlighted in order to investigate the reliability of electrical equipments due to the effect of the environmental factors and equipment condition. Factors related to the target equipment and the inspection tool together with their characteristics is also presented. Due to the complex analysis, various automatic diagnostic systems are proposed for faster and more accurate analysis. Typical engineering solutions using recent technologies are reviewed which could be used to improve the quality of IRT inspection.     

In situ study of the temperature stability of TiO1.05 titanium monooxide using synchrotron radiation

The temperature stability of cubic TiO_1.05 titanium monooxide is investigated. An in situ X-ray structural analysis is performed using synchrotron radiation in a high temperature vacuum chamber. It is found that under poor vacuum and at high heating rates of up to 1250°C, the structural transformations in TiO_1.05 occur at 630°C. In particular, there is a phase transition from TiO_1.05 (space group Fm-3m) to rhombohedraic Ti₂O₃ (space group R-3c) via Ti_2.5O₃ (space group Immm).     

大功率光纤激光焊焊缝跟踪偏差红外检测方法

精确控制激光束使其始终对准并跟踪焊缝是保证激光焊接质量的前提.针对大功率(激光功率10 kW)光纤激光焊接304型不锈钢紧密对接焊缝(间隙为0-0.1 mm),研究一种基于红外热像的焊缝跟踪偏差检测新方法. 采用红外传感高速摄像机摄取焊接区域熔池红外动态热像,分析激光束对准和偏离焊缝中心时的熔池温度分布和红外辐射特性,以熔池匙孔形变参数和热堆积效应参数作为激光束与焊缝中心偏差检测特征值,通过图像识别技术研究和分析特征值与焊缝偏差之间的关系. 激光焊接试验结果表明,熔池匙孔形变参数和热堆积效应参数与焊缝偏差 关键词： 大功率光纤激光焊 焊缝跟踪偏差 红外热像 检测     

In vitro method for medical risk assessment of laser fumes

Laser processing of different materials may produce toxic fumes. In preventive occupational medicine it is necessary to evaluate valid hygienic standards for work places. The basis for such hygienic standards is the classification of laser fumes by their fibrogenic, emphysematous, immunological or other harmful potencies in biological assay systems. This paper is part of a European project on laser safety. Our part in this project is the development of a method for the investigation of lung responses using in vitro cell assays. The appropriate laser fume samples will be supplied by other groups in this European project. In contrast to the cell assays usually used in risk assessment, our method is based on isolated target cells in the lung, such as alveolar macrophages. The test criteria are mediator release, surfactant reactions, release of reactive oxygen species and cell proliferation. As demonstrated in the lung response to other dusts (minerals, fibres etc) these parameters are medically relevant factors in the pathogenic alveolar dust response. The paper gives basic information about the method using lung cell assays and the results of known substances, in comparison with a dust generated by laser processing.     

The use of infrared thermography to study the optical characteristics of flames from burning vegetation

Some optical phenomena observed in the flames from the burning of flammable vegetation materials and ethyl alcohol are analyzed. Recommendations on the optimal spectral bands for temperature measurements of hot objects obscured by flames are given. Frequency spectra of temperature pulsations in flames are obtained, thus revealing a spatial structure in the flow of combustion products, as well as the degree of turbulence in a high temperature fluid medium.     

In vitro assessment of thermal changes in human teeth during photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy performed with red light sources

Abstract  

Photo-disinfection of deep dentin caries lesions may be a useful tool for preserving tooth structure. However, increase of pulpal temperature higher than 5.5°C may put pulp vitality in danger.