G0300202 Development of remote non-destructive inspection system using active infrared thermography

Abstract

In this study, we aim to develop an active infrared thermographic non-destructive inspection system for structures located 10-20 m from observers. In order to achieve the aim, we are developing a remote heating lamp for heating test objects efficiently, and studying some data processing techniques for the temperature data to improve defect detectability. In the present paper, we report a prototype of the remote heating lamp and a data processing technique to reduce non-uniform heating in the temperature images which disturbs detection of defects. It was found from experiments that the developed heating lamp could heat a concrete specimen located 15m from the heater, and an artificial defect in the specimen could be detected in the observed temperature images. It was also found that the non-uniform heating, which was mainly caused by configuration of the heating lamp, could be reduced by using phase images obtained by applying Fourier transformation to the temperature data. These findings will contribute to the developing infrared thermographic remote non-destructive inspection system.