Open crack depth sizing by multi-speed continuous laser stimulated lock-in thermography

Abstract

A crack located in the thermal diffusion zone of a heat source behaves like a thermal barrier modifying the heat diffusion. For a moving continuous source, the sample surface is heated on a little area near the crack for a duration which depends on the speed of the thermal source. A lock-in process synchronized by the displacement of the continuous heat source along the crack is studied. The thermal signature of the crack is extracted via a space operator applied to the amplitude and the phase of surface temperature images for various speeds of the thermal source. With the technical solution presented in this article, the thermal signature images are analysed according to a length representative of the thermal diffusion length to give a local evaluation of the crack depth (around 3 mm at the maximum) for crack lengths of about few centimetres long. The multi-speed lock-in thermography approach is initially studied with finite element method simulations. Experimental tests using an infra-red camera validate the method in a second part. The results do not depend on the heating source if its power is sufficient to produce a temperature rise detectable by an infra-red camera. The depth estimations are obtained independently of the crack width and heat source trajectory. The multi-speed lock-in thermography is a method without contact, without sample preparation, non-polluting, non-destructive and with simple optical adjustments.