<title>Detection of moisture in porous materials by infrared thermography</title>

Abstract

Frequently, damages in porous materials arise as a direct or indirect consequence of moisture concentration and transport. Usually, detection of the existing moisture in porous materials is fundamentally necessary, in order to identify the actual damage, as well as their deterioration rate. There have been numerous reports about moisture detection in porous media, employing various direct techniques. In this research work, infrared thermography was employed with the intention of assessing moisture concentration in reference porous materials in the laboratory. Untreated and consolidated porous stones were subjected to capillary rise moisture tests, whilst infrared thermography was used for the monitoring of these laboratory tests. The performance of the investigated porous materials, in order to interpret the moisture phenomena studied and the obtained thermographs, was also examined in terms of their microstructure (mercury intrusion porosimetric results) and isothermic behavior (water sorption curves). The results of this work indicate that thermography ought to be considered as a nondestructive assessment tool for the detection of moisture in porous materials.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.