The Effects of Heating Methods on Infrared Thermography.

Infrared (IR) Thermography is a good way of detecting air filled defects in FRP decks. When heat is applied to the deck surface, the material over the air void heats up faster and becomes hotter than the surrounding area and an IR camera can distinguish this defective area from a sound area in the deck based on surface temperature measurements. Since this technique requires application of heat in order to produce results, it seems only logical that one should research the effects of different heating types on the defect analysis. For this study, various heat sources; such as the sun, a 5000 BTU quartz electric heater, a 9000 BTU propane convection heater, and a 35000 BTU forced air propane heater, were used to heat up an FRP deck specimen with built-in defects for IR analysis. Different heating times were used to determine the effects on the accuracy and the total elapsed time involved in seeing a defect in the resultant IR images. A few methods, such as CO2 cooling, for decreasing the time it takes to see the defect in the image were also explored. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]