Abstract
In case that a defect exists inside of concrete structure, the temperature of the surface of the defective portion will become higher as compared with that of sound portion in the daytime. The detection of the defect becomes possible by sensing the temperature distribution of the surface in the thermal image. However, detecting the defect in the thermal image is greatly influenced by environmental conditions, such as sunshine, and temperature.
Therefore, in this study, we observed the thermal images of the railway viaducts in the field and made numerical analyses of the heat balance model based on the observed data to verify in which quantitative condition the defects were able to be detected using thermal image. As a result, we propose an efficient inspecting method for a defect inside of concrete structure using thermal image.
