Reinforced concrete structures (RCS) have budding applications in civil engineering due to their high strength, durability, sustainability and flexibility in making complex shapes. However, loss of durability of constructed structures due to premature corrosion of rebar is a major constraint. An initial stage of cracking and corrosion of rebar in concrete is not detectable by visual inspection. With a view to avoid catastrophic failure and massive repair of structures, it is essential to determine damage at low levels. Growing concern about the safety of structure due to premature deterioration has led to a significant demand for advancement of non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) techniques for monitoring and assessing health of RCS. This paper highlights a whole-field, remote, non-destructive testing and evaluation method based on infrared thermography for identifying hidden corrosion of rebar in a concrete structure. Results shown for both time and frequency domain transform techniques prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach for identification of corrosion in rebar in the concrete specimen.
Among the widely used active infrared non-destructive testing and evaluation methods, coded thermal wave imaging modalities have proved to be an efficient testing and evaluation methods for characterization of various solid materials. These techniques makes use of relatively low peak power heat sources in a moderate time compared with the conventional pulsed based and sinusoidal modulated thermographic approaches respectively. This present work introduces a 11-bit Barker coded thermal wave imaging approach for characterization of mild steel sample having flat bottom holes as defects. Capabilities of the proposed approach has been studied on a mild steel sample containing flat bottom holes as sub-surface defects located at different depths and it has been modeled using a finite element method. Results show the defect detection capabilities of the proposed 11-bit Barker coded excitation scheme as a promising testing and evaluation method to detect the subsurface defects.
Glass Fibre Reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites are being used in a wide range of application areas since these materials are less affected by corrosive environmental conditions and provide longer life with less maintenance. However, there are still some concerns about reinforced polymers, such as the presence of surface and sub-surface defects which influence their in service applications. To detect these defects, InfraRed Thermographic (IRT) methods show their potential usage for Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT&E) of composite materials due to their inherent testing capabilities such as remote, whole field, quantitative and qualitative to detect surface and sub-surface defects. Thermal NDT&E is broadly categorized into passive or active approach. In passive approach, the test sample's temperature distribution is monitored in the absence of any external heat stimulus at ambient conditions. However, this may not provide ample thermal contrast to detect the defects located at deeper depths. In order to detect deeper defects inside the test specimen, an active thermography is preferred. This can be carried out by applying an external heat stimulus, to induce enough thermal contrast over the test object. The thermal gradients appear over the material during the active heating due to the changes in thermal properties of defective and sound region leading to the detection of subsurface defects. This present work highlights a spectral reshaping by introducing a Gaussian window on the captured thermal profile in a frequency modulated thermal wave imaging and named as Gaussian Windowed Frequency Modulated Thermal Wave Imaging (GWFMTWI) technique. Further various multi-transform techniques (time and frequency domain based) have been introduced in order to test sub-surface defect detection capabilities in chosen GFRP sample. Comparison has been made with the non-stationary linear frequency modulated thermal wave imaging technique in terms of depth scanning capability. Results obtained from GWFMTWI clearly show better detection potential with improved test resolution and sensitivity.
Thermal Wave Detection and Ranging (TWDAR) for non-destructive testing (TNDT) is a whole field, non-contact and non-destructive inspection method to reveal the surface or subsurface anomalies in the test sample, by recording the temperature distribution over it, for a given incident thermal excitation. Present work proposes recent trends in nonstationary thermal imaging methods which can be performed with less peak power heat sources than the widely used conventional pulsed thermographic methods (PT and PPT) and in very less time compared to sinusoidal modulated Lockin Thermography (LT). Furthermore, results obtained with various non-stationary thermal imaging techniques are compared with the phase based conventional thermographic techniques.
Active infrared thermography for nondestructive testing and evaluation is a rapidly developing technique for quick and remote inspection of subsurface details of test objects. Sinusoidal modulated thermal wave imaging such as Lock-in thermography (LT) significantly contributed to this field by allowing low power controlled modulated stimulations and phase based subsurface detail extraction capabilities. But demand of repetitive experimentation required for depth scanning of the test object, limits its applicability for realistic applications and demands multi frequency low power stimulations. Non-stationary thermal wave imaging methods such as frequency modulated thermal wave imaging (FMTWI), digitized FMTWI and coded thermal wave imaging methods permitting multi frequency stimulations to cater these needs and facilitate depth scanning of the test object in a single experimentation cycle. This contribution highlights theory, modeling and simulation for non-stationary modulated thermal wave imaging methods for non-destructive characterization of solid materials.
InfraRed Thermography (IRT) is one of the promising technique for non-destructive testing method for characterization of materials. This technique relies on evaluation of the surface temperature variations to detect the presence of surface and subsurface anomalies within the material. Due to its whole field and remote testing capabilities, IRT has gained significant importance in testing of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) materials. A GFRP sample with defects of various sizes at a given depth was inspected using non-stationary thermographic techniques. In order to highlight the defect detection capabilities of the proposed non-stationary schemes, a comparison has been made using matched excitation energy in frequency domain by taking signal to noise ratio into consideration.
Active thermographic studies proved their capabilities for detection of deeper subsurface details with reduced non
uniform emissivity problems for defect detection. In this contribution analysis of subsurface anomalies has been
carried out by probing a suitable frequency component with sufficient energy. This paper highlights the comparative
analysis of different non-stationary thermographic schemes on the basis of probing equal energy to the chosen
frequency component used for the analysis of a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) sample used in
experimentation. Experiments have been carried out to find the detection ability of different excitation schemes and
comparisons have been made by taking signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the defects into consideration.
Active infrared nondestructive evaluation (AIRNDE) involves mapping of surface temperatures over the test
object, for a known imposed incident heat flux, to detect surface and subsurface defects (voids, disbands, cracks etc.). It
is a fast, whole field and remote inspection method for defect detection. Since most of the solids conduct heat, AIRNDE
has the potential for wide use in non destructive testing of variety of solid materials. It is achieved by observing,
recording and analyzing the thermal response over the material surface to a heat stimulus and is broadly known as active
thermography in contrast to passive thermography where no heat stimulus is applied. This paper highlights the defect
detection capabilities of digitized frequency modulated thermal wave imaging for carbon and glass fiber reinforced
plastic materials.
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