Thermal Imaging

Heat transfer
Conduction solid
Convection liq, gas
Radiation no medium

wavelength of thermal radiation extends from 0.1 microns to several hundred microns.

Infrared (IR) radiation has a wavelength that is longer than visible light - greater than 700
nanometers.
As the wavelength of the radiation shortens, it reaches the point where it is short enough to
enter the visible spectrum and can be detected with the human eye.

An infrared camera has the ability to detect and display infrared energy.
The basis for infrared imaging technology is that any object whose temperature is above 0 K
radiates infrared energy.

Emissivity
Measure of a surfaces ability to radiate infrared energy
ratio of thermal energy emitted by a surface to the energy emitted by a perfect
blackbody at the same temperature.

Equipment
Detector and display system
Detector Thermal and Quantum
Thermal Heat sensitive coating that melts at certain temp or change color with
temp. Thermoelectric or pyroelectric devices like thermocouple, thermistors or
bolometers

Thermopile

Bolometer

IR incoming photons of a certain wavelength are absorbed by the sensor and

creates electron-hole pair which can be detected as electrical current. Thus
radiation energy is directly converted to a signal.
But signal output is very small and hence suffers from noise. Since noise is partly
proportional to temperature, detector is operated at cryogenic temp.
Photoconductive and photovoltaic
Photoconductive generates electrons, holes or electron-hole pairs
Indium antimonide (InSb), quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP, GaAs/AlGaAs
multilayer), mercury cadmium telluride (mercad, MCT), lead sulfide (PbS), and lead
selenide (PbSe).

Photovoltaic - require an internal potential barrier (p-n junction or Schottky

barriers) with a built-in electric field in order to separate photo-generated
electron-hole pairs.
indium antimonide (InSb), mercury cadmium telluride (MCT), platinum silicide (PtSi), and
silicon Schottky barriers

Imaging
Scanning a detector (or group of detectors)
single element detector scanning along each line in the frame (serial scanning)- requires
very high scan speed
series of elements are commonly scanned as a block, along each line
The frame movement can be provided by frame scanning optics (using mirrors) or in the
case of line scan type imagers, by the movement of the imager itself

Focal plane array (FPA) - group of sensor elements organized into a rectangular grid.
The entire scene is focused on the array, each element cell then provides an output
dependent upon the infrared radiation falling upon it.
The advantage of FPAs is that no moving mechanical parts are needed and that the
detector sensitivity and speed can both be slower. The drawback is that the detector
array is more complicated to fabricate and manufacturing costs are higher.

 A special lens focuses the infrared light emitted by all of the objects in view.
The focused light is scanned by FPA detectors. The array of detector lies in the focal
plane of the lens.
A detailed temperature pattern called a thermogram, is created based on the radiation
energy falling on each sensor. This information is obtained from several thousand points
in the field of view of the detector array.
The thermogram created by the detector elements is translated into electric impulses.
The impulses are sent to a signal-processing unit, a circuit board with a dedicated chip
that translates the information from the elements into data for the display.
The signal-processing unit sends the information to the display, where it appears as
various colors depending on the intensity of the infrared emission. The combination of all
the impulses from all of the elements creates the image.

Thermal imaging devices

Un-cooled - This is the most common type of thermal-imaging device. The
infrared-detector elements are contained in a unit that operates at room
temperature. natural or artificial pyroelectric materials, usually in the form of a thin
film, out of gallium nitride (GaN), (CsNO3), polyvinyl fluorides or micrbolometers.
This type of system is completely quiet, activates immediately and has the battery
built right in.
Cryogenically cooled - these systems have the elements sealed inside a
container that cools them to sub zero temperature. The advantage of such a
system is the incredible resolution and sensitivity that result from cooling the
elements. Cryogenically-cooled systems can detect a temperature difference as
small as 0.1 C from a distance of more than 1,000 ft (300 m).

Image interpretation

White areas indicate hot spots and black areas indicate cooler regions
Modern equipments are capable resolving the temperature in terms of
different colors

Application to NDT
Thermal image technique will detect defects or anomalies in the underlying material as changes
in the surface temperature. Owing to different thermal coefficients between defects and the
surrounding material, heat will flow in different way and with different rate, and the result will be
a different temperature distribution in correspondence of defects.

Passive and active method

Passive - No external heating. Heat is generated due to mechanical load (stress). cracks tips or
stress concentration zones are areas where heat is accumulated and dissipated and they appear as
hot spots.
Active part to be tested is heated externally to get radiation from the surface.
Single sided sample is heated by an external heat source and then sensor is scanned to
record the radiation

Double sided The heat source and the sensor are placed on opposite sides and operated
simultaneously

Composite sandwich structure

Brazed joint of dissimilar metals

Brazed joint of cooling tube to a heat sink

Thermal image

X-ray image

Civil structures

Bright patches indicate missing and poorly positioned insulation in the walls of a new
industrial unit.

Survey of concrete roof slab in full sun. Dark (cool) patches indicate presence of moisture
trapped in upper insulation layers

Can be used for inspecting parts in service e.g. Mechanical and

Electrical Systems Simply pointing an infrared camera at a component
and looking for areas of uneven heating and localized hot spots.

Electrical loose connection, failed transformer

Mechanical improper bushing and bearing lubrication,
over loaded motor or pumps, coupling misalignment

Electronics temperature of the junction is a critical

factor for the life of semiconductor device

Corrosion damage:
material thinning of relatively thin structures e.g. aircraft fuselage
Surface being inspected needs to be heated out put obtained from different
parts will give an idea about the damage. Heating is done by xenon flash
lamps.
Heat will be conducted away from the surface faster from thicker region. From the
temp profile a thickness map can be generated

Corrosion damage and disbonding in the inside

surface of an aircraft skin

Gas turbine Engine liners

Defect (delamination )

2 mm2/s

17 mm2/s
Thermal diffusivity

SiC-SiCf liner with EBC

Depth 0.9 mm

CT scan

IR Image

Depth profile

Liners with EBC

2 mm2/s

17 mm2/s

Delamination/debonding of the EBC layers after 13,937 hrs of engine

operation

Correlation of cross-sectional photomicrographs

with one-sided thermal image showing locations
where EBC debonding and pre-spall occur

Flaw Detection
Sound material, a good weld, or a solid bond will see heat dissipate rapidly
through the material, whereas a defect will retain the heat for longer.

Vibrothermography image of a 7075 Al plate

Vibrothermography exciting the sample by bursts of high energy, low frequency
acoustic waves. this generates frictional heat at the faces of a crack and hence the crack
can be detected by thermal imaging

Process monitoring
Steel slab

no water for cooling. There are no

stripes from improper headers.

New headers were installed to quench

slab, however, the header nozzles were
not properly installed causing hot and cold
stripes.

Product quality
Audi cars

On the tyre testbed: infrared

camera detects rolling resistance
and heat development of tyre

Monitoring heat distribution in

the catalytic converter

Thermal imaging of the engine testbed to find out temp

distribution and potential failure sites

Fracture Mechanics
vs
NDT

Fracture toughness and Design

KIc = a
For a given material KIc is fixed. For any allowable crack size the design stress is fixed
and must be below KIc.
High strength and light weight Limited materials; KIc is fixed. Stress level has to be kept
high to get maximum payload.
Hence, allowable flaw size should be small.
On the other hand for the same crack size a material having high KIc will be able to take
higher stress than material with low KIc

Triangle of Integrity

Design Considerations
What is the critical crack size at service loads?
How safe is the system if it contains a crack?
How long might it take for a crack to grow from initial to critical size?
How often should a particular structure be non destructively inspected?

Three kinds of Design approach

Safe life
Fail safe
Damage tolerant

Safe life Component or structure is discarded after predefined period of service

which is determined by the S-N curve data.

Drawback
Lot of scatter in the S-N data. The component may still be having sufficient life
time when it is discarded after the intended period.

Fail-safe :
Even if there is damage in the structure it will not fail catastrophically. Other
components of the structure should be able to bear the load from the damaged
component (multiple load paths) and prevent failure.
Some time crack arresters (materials having high fracture toughness) are also
used to serve the same purpose e.g. stringers in aircraft fuselage structure.

Damage tolerant:
Structure contains an initial flaw which will grow during service. Growth of the flaw
is monitored by inspection at predefined intervals to prevent failure

A fracture mechanics damage tolerant approach requires accurate knowledge of

i) the size and shape of the flaw
ii) the loading conditions/stress levels in the region of the flaw (Finite Element Analysis or
Direct Measurement)
iii) operating environment
iv) the fatigue/fracture mechanics properties of the material. Although extensive databases
of material properties are available for general engineering, materials fatigue and fracture
data is often not easily available and have to be derived from tests.

Fracture mechanics analysis, coupled with appropriate inspection procedures,

provides a rational and quantitative method for enabling a component to be kept
in service safely

Digital Radiography
Flat panel detectors (FPD)

Phosphor plate, barium fluorohalide activated by europium. Latent image is

excited by laser, photomultiplier converts the light out put to an analog image
which is converted to a digital one by A/D converter.

Flat panel detectors (FPD)

Direct conversion of X-ray to electrical signal - a two-dimensional array of thin
film transistor (TFT) with an X-ray converter. Amorphous Si (TFT) coated with a
image-conversion layer (CsI)

Direct conversion of X-ray to electrical signal - a two-dimensional

array of thin film transistor (TFT) with an X-ray converter. Amorphous
Si (TFT) coated with a image-conversion layer (CsI)

Computed Tomography

2-D and 3-D cross-sectional images of an object

Images are taken at different angles by rotating the sample as if the sample is sliced at
different planes and imaged. Tomography - Tomos slice graphein to write
When the density data of these slices are stretched and put together (reconstructed) they
create a 3D image of the object or the defects