Introduction to Thermal Testing

(AKA Thermal Inspection, Thermography, Thermal Imaging, Thermal Wave Imaging

and Infrared Testing)

(Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC)

Thermal NDT methods involve the measurement or mapping of surface temperatures as
heat flows to, from and/or through an object. The simplest thermal measurements
involve making point measurements with a thermocouple. This type of measurement
might be useful in locating hot spots, such as a bearing that is wearing out and starting
to heat up due to an increase in friction.
In its more advanced form, the use of thermal imaging systems allow thermal
information to be very rapidly collected over a wide area and in a non-contact mode.
Thermal imaging systems are instruments that create pictures of heat flow rather than of
light. Thermal imaging is a fast, cost effective way to perform detailed thermal analysis.
The image above is a heat map of the space shuttle as it lands.
Thermal measurement methods have a wide range of uses. They are used by the police
and military for night vision, surveillance, and navigation aid; by firemen and
emergency rescue personnel for fire assessment, and for search and rescue; by the
medical profession as a diagnostic tool; and by industry for energy audits, preventative
maintenance, processes control and nondestructive testing. The basic premise of
thermographic NDT is that the flow of heat from the surface of a solid is affected by
internal flaws such as disbonds, voids or inclusions. The use of thermal imaging
systems for industrial NDT applications will be the focus of this material.

Scientific Principles of Thermal Testing

Thermal Energy
Energy can come in many forms, and it can change from one form to another but can never be lost. This is the
First Law of Thermodynamics. A byproduct of nearly all energy conversion is heat, which is also known as
thermal energy. When there is a temperature difference between two objects or two areas within the same object,
heat transfer occurs. Heat energy transfers from the warmer areas to the cooler areas until thermal equilibrium is
reached. This is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. When the temperature of an object is the same as the
surrounding environment, it is said to be at ambient temperature.
Heat Transfer Mechanisms
Thermal energy transfer occurs through three mechanisms: conduction, convection, and/or radiation. Conduction
occurs primarily in solids and to a lesser degree in fluids as warmer, more energetic molecules transfer their
energy to cooler adjacent molecules. Convection occurs in liquids and gases, and involves the mass movement of
molecules such as when stirring or mixing is involved.
The third way that heat is transferred is through electromagnetic radiation of energy. Radiation needs no medium
to flow through and, therefore, can occur even in a vacuum. Electromagnetic radiation is produced when electrons
lose energy and fall to a lower energy state. Both the wavelength and intensity of the radiation is directly related to
the temperature of the surface molecules or atoms.
Wavelength of Thermal Energy

The wavelength of thermal radiation extends from 0.1 microns to several hundred microns. As highlighted in the
image, this means that not all of the heat radiated from an object will be visible to the human eye but the heat is
detectable. Consider the gradual heating of a piece of steel. With the application of a heat source, heat radiating
from the part is felt long before a change in color is noticed. If the heat intensity is great enough and applied for
long enough, the part will gradually change to a red color. The heat that is felt prior to the part changing color is
the radiation that lies in the infrared frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Infrared (IR) radiation has a
wavelength that is longer than visible light or, in other words, greater than 700 nanometers. As the wavelength of
the radiation shortens, it reaches the point where it is short enough to enter the visible spectrum and can be
detected with the human eye.
An infrared camera has the ability to detect and display infrared energy. Below is an infrared image of an ice cube
melting. Note the temperature scale on side, which shows warm areas in red and cool areas in purple. It can be

seen that the ice cube is colder than the surrounding air and it is absorbing heat at its surface. The basis for
infrared imaging technology is that any object whose temperature is above 0K radiates infrared energy. Even
very cold objects radiate some infrared energy. Even though the object might be absorbing thermal energy to
warm itself, it will still emit some infrared energy that is detectable by sensors. The amount of radiated energy is a
function of the object's temperature and its relative efficiency of thermal radiation, known as emissivity.

(Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC)

Emissivity
A very important consideration in radiation heat transfer is the emissivity of the object being evaluated. Emissivity
is a measure of a surface's efficiency in transferring infrared energy. It is the ratio of thermal energy emitted by a
surface to the energy emitted by a perfect blackbody at the same temperature. A perfect blackbody only exists in
theory and is an object that absorbs and reemits all of its energy. Human skin is nearly a perfect blackbody as it
has an emissivity of 0.98, regardless of actual skin color.
If an object has low emissivity, IR instruments will indicate a lower temperature than the true surface temperature.
For this reason, most systems and instruments provide the ability for the operator to adjust the emissivity of the
object being measured. Sometimes, spray paints, powders, tape or "emissivity dots" are used to improve the
emissivity of an object.

Equipment - Detectors

Thermal energy detection and measurement equipment comes in a large variety of forms and levels of sophistication
categorize the equipment and materials is to separate thermal detectors from quantum (photon) detectors. The basic
between the two is that thermal detectors depend on a two-step process. The absorption of thermal energy in these d
the temperature of the device, which in turn changes some temperature-dependent parameter, such as electrical cond
Quantum devices detect photons from infrared radiation. Quantum detectors are much more sensitive but require co
operate properly.
Thermal Detectors

Thermal detectors include heat sensitive coatings, thermoelectric dev

pryoelectric devices. Heat sensitive coatings range from simple waxsubstances that are blended to melt at certain temperatures to speciall
paint and greases that change color as temperature changes. Heat sen
are relatively inexpensive but do not provide
good quantitative data.

Thermoelectric devices include thermocouples,

thermopiles (shown right), thermistors and
bolometers. These devices produce an electrical response based on a change in temperature of
the sensor. They are often used for point or localized measurement in a contact or near contact
mode. However, thermal sensors can be miniaturized. For example, mirobolometers are the
active elements in some high-tech portable imaging systems, such as those used by fire
departments. Benefits of thermal detectors are that the element does not need to be cooled and
they are comparatively low in price. Thermal detectors are used to measure the temperature in everything from hom
fire and intruder detection systems to industrial furnaces to rockets.

Quantum (Photon) Detectors

Unlike thermal detectors, quantum detectors do not rely on the conversion of incoming radiation to heat, but conver
photons directly into an electrical signal. When photons in a particular range of wavelengths are absorbed by the det
create free electron-hole pairs, which can be detected as electrical current. The signal output of a quantum detector i
and is overshadowed by noise generated internally to the device at room temperatures. Since this noise within a sem
partly proportional to temperature, quantum detectors are operated at cryogenic temperatures [i. e. down to 77 K (liq
or 4 K (liquid helium)] to minimize noise. This cooling requirement is a significant disadvantage in the use of quant
However, their superior electronic performance still makes them the detector of choice for the bulk of thermal imagi
applications. Some systems can detect temperature differences as small as 0.07C.

Quantum detectors can be further subdivided into photoconductive and photovoltaic devices. The function of photoc
detectors are based on the photogeneration of charge carriers (electrons, holes or electron-hole pairs). These charge
increase the conductivity of the device material. Possible materials used for photoconductive detectors include indiu
(InSb), quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP), mercury cadmium telluride (mercad, MCT), lead sulfide (PbS
selenide (PbSe).

Photovoltaic devices require an internal potential barrier with a built-in electric field in order to separate photo-gene
hole pairs. Such potential barriers can be created by the use of p-n junctions or Schottky barriers. Examples of photo
infrared detector types are indium antimonide (InSb), mercury cadmium telluride (MCT), platinum silicide (PtSi), a
Schottky barriers.

Detector Cooling
There are several different ways of cooling the detector to the required temperature. In the early days of thermal ima
nitrogen was poured into imagers to cool the detector. Although satisfactory, the logistical and safety implications le
development of other cooling methods. High pressure gas can be used to cool a detector to the required temperature
allowed to rapidly expand in the cooling systems and this expansion results in the significant reduction in the tempe
Mechanical cooling systems are the standard for portable imaging systems. These have the logistical advantage of fr
detection system from the requirements of carrying high pressure gases or liquid nitrogen.

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Equipment - Imaging Technology

Imaging Systems
Thermal imaging instruments measure radiated infrared
energy and convert the data to corresponding maps of
temperatures. A true thermal image is a gray scale image with
hot items shown in white and cold items in black.
Temperatures between the two extremes are shown as
gradients of gray. Some thermal imagers have the ability to
add color, which is artificially generated by the camera's video
enhancement electronics, based upon the thermal attributes seen by the camera. Some instruments
provide temperature data at each image pixel. Cursors can be positioned on each point, and the
corresponding temperature is read out on the screen or display. Images may be digitized, stored,
manipulated, processed and printed out. Industry-standard image formats, such as the tagged image
file format (TIFF), permit files to work with a wide array of commercially available software
packages.
Images are produced either by scanning a detector (or group of detectors) or by using with focal
plane array. A scanning system in its simplest form could involve a single element detector scanning
along each line in the frame (serial scanning). In practice, this would require very high scan speeds,
so a series of elements are commonly scanned as a block, along each line. The use of multiple
elements eases the scan speed requirement, but the scan speed and channel bandwidth requirements
are still high. Multiple element scans do, however, result in a high degree of uniformity. The frame
movement can be provided by frame scanning optics (using mirrors) or in the case of line scan type
imagers, by the movement of the imager itself. Another method is to use a number of elements
scanning in parallel (parallel scanning). These scanners have one element per line and scan several
lines simultaneously. Scan speeds are lower but this method can give rise to poor image uniformity.
Another way thermal images are produced is with focal plane arrays (FPA), which are also known as
staring arrays. A focal plane array is a group of sensor elements organized into a rectangular grid. A
high magnification image of a portion of a mirobolometer focal plane array is shown to the right.
The entire scene is focused on the array, each element cell then provides an output dependent upon
the infrared radiation falling upon it. The spatial resolution of the image is determined by the number
of pixels of the detector array. Common formats for commercial infrared detectors are 320 by 240

pixels (320 columns, 240 rows), and 640 by 480. The latter format is nearly the resolution obtained
by a standard TV. Spatial resolution, the ability to measure temperatures on small areas, can be as
fine as 15 microns. Temperature resolution, the ability to measure small temperature differences, can
be as fine as 0.1 C.
The advantage of FPAs is that no moving mechanical parts are needed
and that the detector sensitivity and speed can both be slower. The
drawback is that the detector array is more complicated to fabricate
and manufacturing costs are higher. However, improvements in
semiconductor fabrication practices are driving the cost down and the
general trend is that infrared camera systems will be based on FPAs,
except for special applications. A microbolometer is the latest type of
thermal imaging FPA, and consists of materials that measure heat by
changing resistance at each pixel. The most common microbolometer
material is vanadium oxide (VOX). Amorphous silicon is another
relatively new microbolometer material.
Applications extend from microelectronic levels to scanning wide
areas of the earth from space. Airborne systems can be used to see
through smoke in forest fires. Portable, hand-held units can be used for
equipment monitoring in preventative maintenance and flaw detection
in nondestructive testing programs.
Equipment for Establishing Heat Flow
In some inspection applications, such as corrosion or flaw detection, the components being inspected
may be at ambient temperature and heat flow must be created. This can be accomplished by a variety
of means. Heating can be accomplished by placing the part in a warm environment, such as a
furnace, or directing heat on the surface with a heat gun or with flash lamps. Alternately, cooling can
be accomplished by placing the component in a cold environment or cooling the surface with a spray
of cold liquid or gas.
Image Capturing and Analysis
IR cameras alone or used with an external heat source can often detect large, near-surface flaws.
However, repeatable, quantifiable detection of deeper, subtler features requires the additional
sensitivity of a sophisticated computerized system. In these systems, a computer is used to capture a
number of time sequence images which can be stepped through or viewed as a movie to evaluate the
thermal changes in an object as a function of time. This technique is often referred to as thermal
wave imaging.
The image to the right shows a pulsed thermography system. This system uses a closely controlled
burst of thermal energy from a xenon flash lamp to heat the surface. The dissipation of heat is then
tracked using a high speed thermal imaging camera. The camera sits on top of the gray box in the
foreground. The gray box houses the xenon flash lamp and it is held against the surface being
inspected. The equipment was designed to inspect the fuselage skins of aircraft for corrosion damage
and can make quantitative measurements of material loss. It has also been shown to detect areas of
water incursion in composites and areas where bonded structure have separated.

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Techniques and Select

Industrial Applications
of Thermal Imaging
Some thermal imaging techniques simply
involve pointing a camera at a component and
looking at areas of uneven heating or localized
hot spots. The first two example applications
discussed below fall into this category. For other
applications, it may be necessary to generate heat
flow within the component and/or evaluate heat
flow as a function of time. A variety of thermal
imaging techniques have been developed to
provide the desired information. A few of these techniques are highlighted below.
Electrical and Mechanical System Inspection
Electrical and mechanical systems are the backbone of many manufacturing operations. An
unexpected shutdown of even a minor piece of equipment could have a major impact on
production. Since nearly everything gets hot before it fails, thermal inspection is a valuable and
cost-effective diagnostic tool with many industrial applications.
With the infrared camera, an inspector can see the change in temperature from the surrounding
area, identify whether or not it is abnormal and predict the possible failure. Applications for
infrared testing include locating loose electrical connections, failing transformers, improper
bushing and bearing lubrication, overloaded motors or pumps, coupling misalignment, and other
applications where a change in temperature will indicate an undesirable condition. Since typical
electrical failures occur when there is a temperature rise of over 50C, problems can be detected
well in advance of a failure.
The image on the right above shows three electrical connections. The middle connection is
hotter than the others. Connections can become hot if they are loose or if corrosion causes an
increase in the electrical resistance.
Electronic Component Inspection
In electronics design and manufacturing, a key reliability
factor is semiconductor junction temperature. During
operation, a semiconductor generates heat and this heat will
flow from the component. The heat will flow from the
component in all directions, but will flow particularly well
along thermally conductive connectors. This leads to an
increase in temperature at the junctions where the
semiconductor attaches to the board. Components with high
junction temperatures typically have shorter life spans.
Thermal imaging can be used to evaluate the dissipation of
heat and measure the temperature at the junctions.
Corrosion Damage (Metal Thinning)
IR techniques can be used to detect material thinning of relatively thin structures since areas
with different thermal masses with absorb and radiate heat at different rates. In relatively thin,
thermally conductive materials, heat will be conducted away from the surface faster by thicker

regions. By heating the surface and monitoring its cooling characteristics, a thickness map can
be produced. Thin areas may be the result of corrosion damage on the backside of a structure
which is normally not visible. The image to the right shows corrosion damage and disbonding of
a tear strap/stringer on the inside surface of an aircraft skin. This type of damage is costly to
detect visually because a great deal of the interior of the aircraft must be disassembled. With IR
techniques, the damage can be detected from the outside of the aircraft.
Flaw Detection
Infrared techniques can be used to detect flaws in materials or structures. The inspection
technique monitors the flow of heat from the surface of a solid and this flow is affected by
internal flaws such as disbonds, voids or inclusions. Sound material, a good weld, or a solid
bond will see heat dissipate rapidly through the material, whereas a defect will retain the heat for
longer.
A new technique call vibrothermograph or thermosonic testing was recently introduced by
researchers at Wayne State University for the detection of cracks. A solid sample is excited with
bursts of high-energy, low-frequency acoustic energy. This causes frictional heating at the faces
of any cracks present and hotspots are detected by an infrared camera.
Despite the apparent simplicity of the scheme, there are a number of experimental considerations
that can complicate the implementation of the technique. Factors including acoustic horn
location, horn-crack proximity, horn-sample coupling, and effective detection range all
significantly affect the degree of excitation that occurs at a crack site for a given energy input.
Below are two images from an IR camera showing a 0.050" thick 7075 aluminum plate sample
with a prefabricated crack being inspected using a commercial vibrothermography system. The
image on the left is the IR image with a pre-excitation image subtracted. A crack can be seen in
the middle of the sample and just to the right of the ultrasonic horn. Also seen is heating due to
the horn tip, friction at various clamping sites, and reflection from the hole at the right edge of
the sample. The image on the right is the same data with image processing performed to make
the crack indication easier to distinguish.

Images Courtesy of Wayne State University

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Image Interpretation
Most thermal imagers produce a video output in which white indicates areas of maximum
radiated energy and black indicates areas of lower radiation. The gray scale image contains
the maximum amount of information. However, in order to ease general interpretation and
facilitate subsequent presentation, the thermal image can be artificially colorized. This is
achieved by allocating desired colors to blocks of grey levels to produce the familiar
colorized images. This enables easier image interpretation to the untrained observer.
Additionally, by choosing the correct colorization palette the image may be enhanced to
show particular energy levels in detail.

Many thermal imaging applications are qualitative in nature. The inspection simply
involves comparing the temperatures at various locations within the field of view. The
effects of the sun, shadows, moisture and subsurface detail must all be taken into account
when interpreting the image, but this type of inspection is straightforward. However, great
care must be exercised when using an infrared imager to make quantitative temperature
measurements. As mentioned previously, the amount of infrared radiation emitted from a
surface depends partly upon the emissivity of that surface. Accurate assessment of surface
emissivity is required to acquire meaningful quantitative results.