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.     

Infrared thermography on ocular surface temperature: A review

Body temperature is a good indicator of human health. Thermal imaging system (thermography) is a non-invasive imaging procedure used to record the thermal patterns using Infrared (IR) camera. It provides visual and qualitative documentation of temperature changes in the vascular tissues, and is beginning to play an important role in the field of ophthalmology. This paper deals with the working principle, use and advantages of IR thermography in the field of ophthalmology. Different algorithms to acquire the ocular surface temperature (OST), that can be used for the diagnosis of ocular diseases are discussed.     

Research on thermal wave processing of lock-in thermography based on analyzing image sequences for NDT

Lock-in thermography, an active IR thermography technique for NDT, is based on propagation and reflection of thermal waves which are launched from the surface into the inspected component by absorption of modulated radiation. In this paper, thermal wave image sequences were sampled by a Cedip JADE MWIR 550 FPA infrared camera. Thermal wave signal processing algorithms are investigated to obtain information on subsurface defects. The Fourier transform, four-point correlation, and digital lock-in correlation algorithms are applied to extract the amplitude and phase of thermal wave’s harmonic component. A novel method called the time constant method (TCM) is proposed to analyze subsurface defects by using lock-in thermography. The experimental results confirm the thermal wave signal processing algorithms’ efficiency on subsurface defect detection.     

Motion tracking in infrared imaging for quantitative medical diagnostic applications

In medical applications, infrared (IR) thermography is used to detect and examine the thermal signature of skin abnormalities by quantitatively analyzing skin temperature in steady state conditions or its evolution over time, captured in an image sequence. However, during the image acquisition period, the involuntary movements of the patient are unavoidable, and such movements will undermine the accuracy of temperature measurement for any particular location on the skin. In this study, a tracking approach using a template-based algorithm is proposed, to follow the involuntary motion of the subject in the IR image sequence. The motion tacking will allow to associate a temperature evolution to each spatial location on the body while the body moves relative to the image frame. The affine transformation model is adopted to estimate the motion parameters of the template image. The Lucas–Kanade algorithm is applied to search for the optimized parameters of the affine transformation. A weighting mask is incorporated into the algorithm to ensure its tracking robustness. To evaluate the feasibility of the tracking approach, two sets of IR image sequences with random in-plane motion were tested in our experiments. A steady-state (no heating or cooling) IR image sequence in which the skin temperature is in equilibrium with the environment was considered first. The thermal recovery IR image sequence, acquired when the skin is recovering from 60-s cooling, was the second case analyzed. By proper selection of the template image along with template update, satisfactory tracking results were obtained for both IR image sequences. The achieved tracking accuracies are promising in terms of satisfying the demands imposed by clinical applications of IR thermography.     

Size determination of subsurface defect by active thermography – Simulation research

This paper presents the results of 3D numerical simulations of thermal phenomena in uniform material with subsurface defect located at some depth. The material is aimed to be tested by means of IR active thermography. The temperature field of the front surface of material tested is observed and analysed. The results of modelling are suitable for step heating as an external thermal stimulation – heat flux. The heating duration needed for accurately defect sizing is discussed. Also, an effect of two defects with different thermal properties and simultaneously occurring in the material tested is analysed.     

Thermographic investigation of some surface flow patterns

Infrared (IR) thermography, due to its two-dimensionality and non-contact character, can be usefully employed in a vast variety of heat transfer industrial applications as well as research fields. The present work deals with measurements of temperature and/or convective heat transfer coefficients in several types of fluid flow configurations studied by means of the IR scanning radiometer applied to the heated-thin-foil technique. In more details, it is analysed the capability of the infrared system to study particular phenomena such as: the heat transfer, including the spiral vortical structures developing at transition, over a disk rotating in still air; the thermal exchange enhancement induced by a jet centrally impinging on the rotating disk; the complex heat transfer pattern associated with a jet in cross-flow.     

Fault detection of antenna arrays using infrared thermography

A fast and easy method for fault detection in antenna arrays using infrared thermography is presented. A thin, minimally perturbing, microwave absorption screen made of carbon loaded polymer is kept close in front of the faulty array. Electromagnetic waves falling on the screen increase its temperature. This temperature profile on the screen is identical to electric field intensity profile at the screen location. There is no temperature rise observed on the screen corresponding to non-radiating (faulty) elements and hence can be easily detected by IR thermography. The array input power is modulated at a low frequency which permits thermography to detect even weak fields. It also improves the resolution of thermal images. The power fed to the array is only 30 dBm. In order to show the utility of this technique, an example of 14 GHz 4 × 4 patch antenna array is given. The simulations are carried in CST Microwave Studio 2013. A good agreement between simulation and experimental results is observed.     

Analysis of the configuration and the location of thermographic equipment for the inspection in photovoltaic systems

The infrared (IR) thermography is a non-destructive technique (NDT) which is used to carry out maintenance quickly and easily in photovoltaic (PV) systems. IR imaging with thermographic cameras under steady state conditions is a usual method for quality control of PV modules and plants in operation. For the proper IR inspection which determines the severity or the importance of the detected findings, it is necessary to consider different aspects of the configuration and the location of the thermographic equipment which allow reducing measuring errors. This paper considers some elements which contribute to the accurate configuration of the thermographic equipment. The influence of the reflected apparent temperature in outdoor IR inspections is analysed and it is proposed a simple method for obtaining it. Besides, the importance of the emissivity in IR thermography is analysed. For that, the value of the emissivity in PV modules of various types both front and rear shape is determined experimentally. It is also studied the proper location of the thermographic equipment in order to minimize reflections of the sun and the sky. For this objective, it is studied the ideal and minimum height of inspection according to the layout of the PV system. In a particular case, it is also analysed the influence of the horizontal angle of thermographic inspection and the reflected radiation.     

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.     

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.     

Experimental simulation of a liquid-metal heat-transfer fluid flow in a T-shaped mixer

The structure of the temperature field in a liquid-metal heat-transfer fluid flowing through a T-shaped mixer is studied experimentally. The experiments are carried out using Rose’s alloy as a working fluid. To find the temperature distribution over the wall of a working section, IR thermography is applied. It is shown that the wall temperature distribution in the zone where fluid flows with different temperatures mix is heavily nonuniform. The temperature distribution substantially depends on the ratio between the hot and cold fluid flow rates. The results can be used to verify the thermal hydraulic computational codes for fluid metal flows.     

Theoretical framework for quantitatively estimating ultrasound beam intensities using infrared thermography

In the characterization of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) systems, it is desirable to know the intensity field within a tissue phantom. Infrared (IR) thermography is a potentially useful method for inferring this intensity field from the heating pattern within the phantom. However, IR measurements require an air layer between the phantom and the camera, making inferences about the thermal field in the absence of the air complicated. For example, convection currents can arise in the air layer and distort the measurements relative to the phantom-only situation. Quantitative predictions of intensity fields based upon IR temperature data are also complicated by axial and radial diffusion of heat. In this paper, mathematical expressions are derived for use with IR temperature data acquired at times long enough that noise is a relatively small fraction of the temperature trace, but small enough that convection currents have not yet developed. The relations were applied to simulated IR data sets derived from computed pressure and temperature fields. The simulation was performed in a finite-element geometry involving a HIFU transducer sonicating upward in a phantom toward an air interface, with an IR camera mounted atop an air layer, looking down at the heated interface. It was found that, when compared to the intensity field determined directly from acoustic propagation simulations, intensity profiles could be obtained from the simulated IR temperature data with an accuracy of better than 10%, at pre-focal, focal, and post-focal locations.     

Thermal Analysis for Velocity,Kinetics, and Enthalpy Reaction Measurements in Microfluidic Devices

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present new devices for the measurement of velocity, kinetics, and enthalpy of chemical reactions occurring in a microfluidic chip, co-flow, or droplets flow. The thermal analysis goes from the macroscopic approach by microcalorimetry to microscopic analysis inside the microchannel by IR thermography. Concerning microcalorimetry, the enthalpy is deduced from the measurement of the global heat flux dissipated by the chemical reaction as a function of the molar flow rate. A validation is presented on a well-known acid-base reaction. This device can be combined with an IR camera for local characterization. The processing of the measured temperature fields allows the estimation of properties of great importance for chemical engineers, such as heating source distribution (i.e., the kinetics) of the chemical reaction along the channel. A validation experiment of a temperature field processing method is proposed with the Joule effect. From such a previous experiment, a Peclet field is estimated and used in a further step in order to study an acid-base co-flow configuration. Finally, a first tentative of thermal characterization inside droplets flow during an acid-base chemical reaction is also presented.     

超声红外热像技术及其在无损评价中的应用

本介绍在光热红外检测的基础上发展的超声红外热像技术。该技术利用超声脉冲作为激发源，当超声脉冲在试样上传播的过程中遇到裂纹等缺陷时，缺陷引起超声附加衰减而局部升温。利用红外照相机获取试样表面的温度分布，可显示裂纹等缺陷。超声红外热像技术发挥了超声和红外技术的优点，可实时地检测裂纹等缺陷，在无损评价和检测中有广泛应用。     

Square pulse thermography in frequency domain as adaptation of pulsed phase thermography for qualitative and quantitative applications in cultural heritage and civil engineering

A methodical approach for qualitative and quantitative non-destructive testing of near-surface structures in civil engineering (CE) with active thermography is presented. It adopts the non-destructive testing (NDT) method of pulsed phase thermography (PPT) for the special requirements of CE and cultural heritage. The concept might be understood as a square pulse thermography (SPT) in frequency domain or an amplitude-expanded PPT with square pulse heating.After a discussion of the material spanning concept and qualitative results in cultural heritage a new approach for quantitative non-destructive testing (NDT) of near-surface structures in CE with active thermography is introduced and tested by investigations on concrete specimen with artificial defects. It is based on the thermal diffusivity of the material and the characteristic frequency of the first extrema of phase and amplitude contrast and aims at complementing the established approaches for defect depth calculation for measurements with long heating and observation times. It should be easily extendable to other fields of application.     

Comparison of three thermographic post processing methods for the assessment of a repaired aluminum plate with composite patch

Composite patches are widely used to repair damaged metal structures, especially in aerospace industry. Perfect patch and bonding are necessary to achieve an effective repair. Various thermographic methods such as step heating thermography are commonly applied to inspect repaired structures. Since accurate determination of defect features are admirable, some techniques are used to process the thermal films. In this study, three common post processing techniques of thermography (namely, principle component analysis (PCA), pulse phase thermography (PPT) and thermal signal reconstruction (TSR)) have been utilized to inspect an aluminum plate repaired with carbon/epoxy patches. Several delaminations with various sizes and locations along with some disbond defects were artificially embedded in five samples of composite patches to experimentally investigate the performance of the three techniques for post-processing of the step heating thermography data. Furthermore, the outputs of the mentioned processing techniques were quantitatively compared to find the most effective one. Based on the comparison results, it was demonstrated that, TSR outputs leads to the more accurate defect sizing.     

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.     

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.     

Low-velocity impact damage characterization of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) using infrared thermography

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) after low-velocity impact is detected using infrared thermography, and different damages in the impacted composites are analyzed in the thermal maps.The thermal conductivity under pulse stimulation, frictional heating and thermal conductivity under ultrasonic stimulation of CFRP containing low-velocity impact damage are simulated using numerical simulation method. Then, the specimens successively exposed to the low-velocity impact are respectively detected using the pulse infrared thermography and ultrasonic infrared thermography. Through the numerical simulation and experimental investigation, the results obtained show that the combination of the above two detection methods can greatly improve the capability for detecting and evaluating the impact damage in CFRP. Different damages correspond to different infrared thermal images. The delamination damage, matrix cracking and fiber breakage are characterized as the block-shape hot spot, line-shape hot spot, and “

” shape hot spot respectively.     

Study of normal ocular thermogram using textural parameters

Ocular surface temperature (OST) has been studied with numerous approach and Infrared (IR) thermography has proved to be the best way to capture temperature distribution over some surfaces. It is applied to a number of biomedical applications including studies in the field of ophthalmology. However, the analysis of an ocular thermogram is largely in nascent stage, and is usually achieved by first-order texture analysis. This current study conducted second-order texture analysis on ocular thermal images, mainly by cross co-occurrence matrix together with first-order texture analysis, moments and difference histogram. It was found that, for subjects aged above 35 years old their interocular difference in median, textural contrast, moment 2 and moment 3 (in absolute value) were significantly higher than younger peers. Several significant linear correlations among investigated features were observed. The features extracted from cross co-occurrence matrix may play an important role in the diagnosis of ocular diseases.