Computational pulse shaping for thermographic inspections

William P. Winfree; K. Elliott Cramer

doi:10.1117/12.235379

15 March 1996 Computational pulse shaping for thermographic inspections

Proceedings Volume 2766, Thermosense XVIII: An International Conference on Thermal Sensing and Imaging Diagnostic Applications; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.235379
Event: Aerospace/Defense Sensing and Controls, 1996, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

The thermographic inspection of materials and structures typically involves the application of a heat flux to the surface and measuring the subsequent surface temperature profiles. The nature of typical heat flux sources requires the incident flux has the shape of either a short pulse or a step function. This pulse shape for the flux typically will not maximize the contrast between a response from a flaw in the structure and the unflawed regions of the structure. Optimal shaping of the pulse is experimentally difficult, if not impossible. However, its consideration serves as a useful tool for developing post-processing techniques for the data. The concept is to design filters for processing the data in a manner that emulates shaping the input flux. Convolving the measured thermal response with this optimized filter effectively maps the measured response to the response for an optimally shaped input heat flux. A method for generating this filter is presented. Applying the filter to the thermal response of the structure increases the contrast between flawed and unflawed regions. Results with experimental data illustrate the advantages of the technique over conventional techniques.

Citation Download Citation

William P. Winfree and K. Elliott Cramer "Computational pulse shaping for thermographic inspections", Proc. SPIE 2766, Thermosense XVIII: An International Conference on Thermal Sensing and Imaging Diagnostic Applications, (15 March 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.235379

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