Determination of the modulation frequency for thermographic non-destructive testing

We propose polynomial solutions of the inverse heat conduction problem to design thermographic non-destructive tests for detecting defects in composite and multi-layer materials. Inverse heat conduction in a multi-layer material slab with periodic temperature excitation is considered, and analytical quadrupole representation is used to derive a lumped parameters formulation. Predictions of the proposed polynomial representations are experimentally validated by detecting machined defects on thermally excited panels. For modulation frequencies outside the predicted detection range, defects appear on thermal images as blurry and unstructured; conversely, for modulation frequencies within the predicted range, defects are correctly represented on thermal images.     

Long pulse excitation thermographic non-destructive evaluation

A comprehensive analysis of the defect detection performance of long pulse excitation thermographic NDE is presented. An analytical procedure for predicting the thermal image contrasts of defects of specified size and depth is developed and validated by extensive experimental studies of test pieces having a wide range of thermal properties. Results obtained using long pulse (~5 s) excitation are compared with those obtained using traditional flash excitation. The conditions necessary for the success of the long pulse method are explained and illustrated by both modelling and experimental results. Practical advantages of long pulse excitation are discussed.     

Image fusion of ultrasonic and thermographic inspection of carbon/epoxy patches bonded to an aluminum plate

Inspecting damaged structures repaired with composite patches is one of the most challenging issues of different industries, especially in aeronautical vehicles. Various inspection methods such as ultrasonic (UT) and thermographic methods are commonly applied to the patches and bondings. Although, both ultrasonic and thermographic inspections have their own capabilities, they are also associated with some limitations especially in the inspection of complicated structures such as multilayers. Different data fusion techniques can be used to overcome these limitations, by exploiting the advantages of each inspection technique to achieve the goal to have a more precise and reliable defects assessment. In this paper, different image fusion algorithms are used to fuse the UT C-scan and thermal images obtained from thermographic inspection of carbon/epoxy patches bonded to an aluminum plate. The inspected specimen contained several delaminations of various sizes and locations along with some disbond defects which were artificially embedded in five samples of composite patches. The resulting images of 28 fusion algorithms and the input images have been quantitatively compared using Average Differences (AD) to clarify the efficiency of the fusion algorithm. Comparing results revealed that contrast pyramid was selected as the best image fusion algorithms which can be used for NDE fusion of carbon/epoxy patches bonded to an aluminum plate.     

Thermographic investigation of sandwich structure made of composite material

In this paper an experimental procedure, by means of thermographic technique, was set up in order to detect some typical defects, which could be found in composite material sandwich structures. The material thermal response was investigated for different artificially defects inserted in some specimens; every kind of defect was listed. Then the experimental procedure was applied to study a wind-turbine blade made of sandwich composite structure. The results fulfilled the expectations and confirmed the reliability of the thermographic technique to be used both in laboratory and in service.     

超声振动红外热像法的影响因素

超声振动红外热像法(VT)是红外热像无损检测的重要方法之一,在裂纹等紧贴型缺陷检测中有特殊的应用优势。为了寻找适宜的振动激励条件,用解析法分析了材料热特性(热导率和热扩散系数)和缺陷深度对温升的影响,分析了试件支撑条件和几何尺寸对共振频率的影响。结果表明,复合材料较金属材料容易实现VT检测。对金属件宜用短时超声激励,而对复合材料件宜用较长时间的超声激励。从共振角度看,采用简支方式和超声激励相组合是比较好的选择。     

连铸坯红外热像表面自动探伤系统

为了控制连铸坯表面缺陷,提高钢板的质量和成材率,利用均匀材料与非均匀材料红外热成像的特征差别,提出了一种方便简捷的红外热像连铸坯表面缺陷自动检测系统.采用红外热像装置采集连铸坯图像数据,并通过自动检测图像处理软件进行实时处理,从而实现对连铸坯生产过程的实时监控.采用模块化思想和多线程技术设计了自动检测软件.结果表明,该系统能完成对裂纹图像的实时处理、显示和自动报表等功能.     

Non-uniformity correction and sound zone detection in pulse thermographic nondestructive evaluation

An important requirement in the thermographic nondestructive evaluation is the identification of actual sound zone or the base line with which the defective areas are compared to determine the actual temperature contrast and the corresponding defect severity. In a part under inspection, the actual sound zone is not known a priori and various approximations have been used in the past to serve as this unknown base line. Determination of actual sound zone in a defective test object is still a challenge. A related issue before the identification of this base line pixel is in the elimination of non-uniformity in the temperature distribution across the specimen surface which is unrelated to the actual defects. This spurious contrast is often introduced by the limitations of the instrumentation or the test procedure and it has to be eliminated before pixels in the sound zone can be located. This paper presents an automated procedure for simultaneously eliminating spurious contrast and locating sound zone pixels, directly from experimental data in a thermographic nondestructive evaluation. Location of actual sound zone pixels facilitates accurate thermal contrast computations, extraction of thermal properties such as break time and thermal diffusivity. In addition, based on the actual sound zone temperature profile it is possible to normalize experimental thermographic results in such a way that they can be directly correlated with results from numerical simulations.     

Depth-penetrating temperature measurements of thermal barrier coatings incorporating thermographic phosphors

Thermographic phosphors have been previously demonstrated to provide effective non-contact, emissivity-independent surface temperature measurements. Due to the translucent nature of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), thermographic-phosphor-based temperature measurements can be extended beyond the surface to provide depth-selective temperature measurements by incorporating the thermographic phosphor layer at the depth where the temperature measurement is desired. In this paper, thermographic phosphor (Y₂O₃:Eu) fluorescence decay time measurements are demonstrated to provide through-the-coating-thickness temperature readings up to 1100 °C with the phosphor layer residing beneath a 100-μm-thick TBC (plasmasprayed 8 wt.% yttria-stabilized zirconia). With an appropriately chosen excitation wavelength and detection configuration, it is shown that sufficient phosphor emission is generated to provide effective temperature measurements, despite the attenuation of both the excitation and emission intensities by the overlying TBC. This depth-penetrating temperature measurement capability should prove particularly useful for TBC diagnostics where a large thermal gradient is typically present across the TBC thickness. The fluorescence decay from the Y₂O₃:Eu layer exhibited both an initial short-term exponential rise and a longer-term exponential decay. The rise time constant was demonstrated to provide better temperature indication below 500 °C while the decay time constant was a better indicator at higher temperatures.     

Defect detection in aircraft composites by using a neural approach in the analysis of thermographic images

Safety in aeronautics could be improved if continuous checks were guaranteed during the in-service inspection of aircraft. However, until now, the maintenance costs of so doing have proved prohibitive. For this reason there is a great interest for the development of low cost non-destructive inspection techniques that can be applied during normal routine tests. The analysis of the internal defects (not detectable by a visual inspection) of the aircraft composite materials is a difficult task unless invasive techniques are applied. In this paper, we have addressed the problem of inspecting composite materials by using automatic analysis of thermographic techniques. The analysis of the time/space variations in a sequence of thermographic images allows the identification of internal defects in composite materials that otherwise could not be detected. A neural network was trained to extract the information that characterises a range of internal defects in different types of composite materials. After the training phase the same neural network was applied to all the points of a sequence of thermographic images. The experimental results demonstrate the ability of the method to recognize regions containing defects but also to identify the contour regions that cannot be associated either with a defective or with a sound region.     

蜂窝夹层结构胶接面树脂堆积的红外热像检测

为了研究树脂堆积的红外热像检测问题,文章进行了一维模型建模分析、蜂窝夹层结构样件试验验证和解剖分析。研究发现树脂堆积区域在脉冲加热后的原始热图中表现为"暗区"或"暗斑",并且这些区域的表面温度低于正常胶层厚度区域的表面温度,得出了树脂堆积可以在红外热像检测中被检出的结论。通常树脂堆积不是一种缺陷,但是对蜂窝夹层结构胶接面树脂堆积进行检测却具有重要的现实意义。判断树脂堆积区域的位置、形状和面积,将有助于改进生产工艺。对这些区域进行识别、记录和存档,可以为原位检测蜂窝积水问题提供评定的依据。     

IR thermographic detection and characterization of hidden corrosion in metals: General analysis

Principles of infrared thermographic non-destructive testing for determining hidden corrosion in metals are summarized and discussed. 1D, 2D and 3D heat conduction models are introduced to simulate thermal processes in corroded areas. In thick metals, the lateral heat dissipation is mainly responsible for significantly smoothing the temperature contrast curves. Modelling small-size corroded sites requires 3D numerical models. Numerous defects have been simulated and the inversion formulas for determining material loss have been modelled for both flash and square-pulse heating. It has been shown that corrosion characterization inaccuracy is lower than 20% in cases representing a practical interest.     

航天电子产品焊点缺陷的热仿真与试验

推导了恒定激光脉冲激励作用下的焊点瞬态热平衡方程,及基于极限温差反问题识别的缺陷尺寸及热阻解析求解方法;通过建立空洞缺陷焊点数字化模型,对恒定激光脉冲激励过程进行了热分析仿真,得到了焊点温差、热阻及缺陷尺寸之间的演化规律;通过制备虚焊缺陷焊点试验样本,实施了不同温度参数组合下的热试验,并对热试验后的焊点缺陷演化情况进行红外测温分析.试验结果表明,热试验过程中的焊点缺陷演化机理具有与金属材料蠕变曲线相似的变化规律,缺陷尺寸呈现先增大、后减小及再增大的变化行为,有助于完善和补充焊点的热试验理论.     

缺陷大小和深度的红外检测

介绍红外层析检测的基本原理。为定量测定缺陷，提出由有缺陷区域表面温度和由表面温差达到最大值的峰值时间确定缺陷深度的两种红外检测方法，同时给出由红外热图像确定缺陷尺寸的方法，结果是这些方法更适合于试件浅表面较大面积的缺陷。     

Numerical modeling of vibrothermography based on plastic deformation

This paper investigates vibrothermography for the detection of fatigue cracks in aluminum beams using combined experimental and finite element (FE) analyses. First, a FE modal analysis is carried out to predict the optimal excitation parameters to be employed in experimental investigations performed with an infrared camera. A coupled thermo-mechanical model involving plastic deformation heating is then built and used to simulate the thermographic inspection process. The model shows that the stress at the crack faces exceeds the material’s yield stress confirming that the heat generated during plastic deformation leads to crack detection. The model also predicts the detection of cracks as short as 1 mm that is confirmed experimentally with a maximum error of 0.46% on the temperature evolution. The Fourier transform applied on the numerical thermal response shows that the specimen’s temperature at the crack vicinity changes according to the excitation frequency and presents harmonics due to the nonlinearity induced by the crack.     

基于脉冲红外热成像技术的航空发动机封严涂层检测研究

航空发动机封严涂层质量检测仍然没有有效的无损检测手段，目前还是采用外观检查及破坏性检测方法完成。针对航空发动机封严涂层无损检测需求，开展脉冲红外热成像技术研究，采用闪光灯激励，实现对试件表面热激励，通过热像仪采集图像数据；为了提高图像的分辨率，采用1阶导(1-D)进行图像处理。在完成对人工制作厚度为1 mm的封严涂层试件实验检测后，发现该方法能够有效检测出试件中的2个缺陷，并可有效提取出缺陷大小信息，与实际缺陷大小基本一致，验证了脉冲红外热成像技术对封严涂层检测的有效性。     

Infrared thermography for inspecting the adhesion integrity of plastic welded joints

This work aim at developing a non-destructive tool for the evaluation of bonded plastic joints. The paper examines infrared thermographic transmission and reflection mode imaging and validates the feasibility of the thermal NDT approach for this application. Results demonstrate good estimation performance for adhesion integrity, uniformity and bond strength using a transmission mode application of infrared thermography. In addition, results from a pulsed infrared thermographic application using a modified dynamic infrared tomography scheme show good performance for estimating adhesion layer thickness mapping and detecting delaminations.     

Optimization of pulsed thermography inspection by partial least-squares regression

This paper introduces and tests a statistical correlation method for the optimization of the pulsed thermography inspection. The method is based on partial least squares regression, which decomposes the thermographic PT data sequence obtained during the cooling regime into a set of latent variables. The regression method is applied to experimental PT data from a carbon fiber-reinforced composite with simulated defects. The performance of the regression technique is evaluated in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio. The results showed an increase in the SNRs for 96% of the defects after processing the original sequence with PLSR.     

Fourier-transform vibrothermography with frequency sweep excitation utilizing local defect resonances

The defect activation and detection efficiency of low-energy vibrothermography can be further improved by periodically sweeping the ultrasonic excitation frequency and Fourier-transforming the temperature data at the modulation frequency. This is due to the resulting periodic heat production. While typical local defect resonance investigations make use of known resonance frequencies, this technique instead employs a wideband ultrasonic excitation signal. It can therefore be used to detect defects quickly without knowing the LDR frequency in advance, while still keeping the efficient defect activation effects provided by LDR. Otherwise undetectably low thermal defect signals are enhanced by means of Fourier filtering and the defects’ resonance frequencies are characterized by their phase values.     

NDT of polymer materials using lock-in thermography with water-coupled ultrasonic excitation

We present an NDT method that uses lock-in thermography with ultrasonic heating. The acoustical damping causes the mechanical energy to be converted to thermal energy. In the defective regions the damping is stronger resulting in higher temperature generation. Thus the heating is selective to defects and gives good defect detectability. Because defects also affect the heat conduction, the method gives combined information of the change of the mechanical and thermal properties of the sample due to defects. The ultrasonic excitation is amplitude modulated and the magnitude and the phase of the temperature are measured by infrared camera and software lock-in detection. The applicability of the method was proved with several polymer and composite samples having delaminations, impact damages, voids, and inclusions.     

LED optical excitation for the long pulse and lock-in thermographic techniques

High power light emitting diode (LED) arrays have been investigated as excitation sources for long pulse and lock-in thermography. Images of artificial defects in a carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite sample are compared, by image contrast signal-to-noise ratio estimates, with those obtained using conventional incandescent flash and lock-in excitation sources. The LED arrays had to be mounted on heat sinks with active cooling in to prevent them exceeding their thermal tolerance. Despite this cooling the LED arrays were still found to emit some IR radiation, although far less than conventional incandescent light sources.