Optical coherence tomography complemented by hyperspectral imaging for the study of protective wood coatings

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a contactless and non-destructive testing (NDT) technique based on lowcoherence interferometry. It has recently become a popular NDT-tool for evaluating cultural heritage. In this study, protective coatings on wood and their penetration into the wood structure were measured with a customized infrared fiber optic OCT instrument. In order to enhance the understanding of the OCT measurements of coatings on real wooden samples, an optimization of the measuring and analyzing methodology was performed by developing an averaging approach and by post-processing the data. The collected information was complemented by data obtained with hyperspectral imaging to allow data from local OCT A-scans to be used in mapping the coating thicknesses over larger areas.