In the present work, a non-destructive thermographic method for evaluating the effectiveness of heat treatment in boron steel, has been developed. Considering that the thermal properties of steel are strictly connected with micro-structure, an active thermography technique has been used for measuring the thermal diffusivity, adopting a reflection mode set-up. For the choice of suitable experimental test parameters, a numerical approach through the Finite Element Analysis has been adopted. Two boron steel (Usibor® 1500) specimens with different structures (ferritic-paerlitic / 100% martensitic) have been experimentally investigated by two thermographic methods, in transmission and reflection mode, and results have been compared with semi-destructive hardness test to validate the method.
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