Article Article
Fractal Analysis Applied to Laser Spot Thermography

In the study presented in this paper, fractal analysis was applied to raw infrared images relative to the nondestructive testing technique of laser spot thermography. Laser pulses were used to impart heat to a composite laminate containing artificial discontinuities. The temperature distribution produced by this thermoelastic excitation was measured with an infrared camera and processed with an algorithm based on fractal analysis. The experimental results were interpreted and compared to simulated images and it was found that the algorithm enabled the detection of damage but was unable to quantify the size of the discontinuity.

References
  • Addison, P.S., Fractals and Chaos: An Illustrated Course, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, England, 1997.
  • ASNT, Nondestructive Testing Handbook, third edition: Vol. 3: Infrared and Thermal Testing, American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Columbus, Ohio, 2001.
  • Bolu, G., A. Gachagan, G. Pierce, and G. Harvey, “Reliable Crack Detection in Turbine Blades using Thermosonics: An Empirical Study,” Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, 2010, pp. 474–481.
  • Bolu, G., A. Gachagan, G. Pierce, G. Harvey, and L. Choong, “Monitoring Crack Propagation in Turbine Blades Caused by Thermosonics,” Review of Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 29, 2010, pp. 1654–1661.
  • Bovill, C., Fractal Geometry in Architecture and Design, BirkhКuser Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, 1996.
  • Burrows, S.E., A. Rashed, D.P. Almond, and S. Dixon, “Combined Laser Spot Imaging Thermography and Ultrasonic Measurements for Crack Detection,” Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation, Vol. 22, Nos. 2–3, 2007, pp. 217–227.
  • Carpinteri, A., M. Corrado, and G. Lacidogna, “Three Different Approaches for Damage Domain Characterization in Disordered Materials: Fractal Energy Density, b-value Statistics, Renormalization Group Theory,” Mechanics of Materials, Vol. 53, October 2012, pp. 15–28.
  • Carpinteri, A., G. Lacidogna, and G. Niccolini, “Fractal Analysis of Damage Detected in Concrete Structural Elements under Loading.” Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Vol. 42, No. 4, 2009, pp. 2047–2056.
  • Conde-Saavedra, G., A. Iribarrem, and M.B. Ribeiro, “Fractal Analysis of the Galaxy Distribution in the Redshift Range 0.45≤ z ≤ 5.0,” Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Vol. 417, January 2015, pp. 332–344.
  • Farhidzadeh, A., E. Dehghan-Niri, A. Moustafa, S. Salamone, and A. Whittaker, “Damage Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Structures using Fractal Analysis of Residual Crack Patterns,” Experimental Mechanics, Vol. 53, 2013, pp. 1607–1619.
  • Gao, C., W.Q. Meeker, and D. Mayton, “Detecting Cracks in Aircraft Engine Fan Blades using Vibrothermography Nondestructive Evaluation,” Reliability Engineering & System Safety, Vol. 131, November 2014, pp. 229–235.
  • Gao, C., and W.Q. Meeker, “A Statistical Method for Crack Detection from Vibrothermography Inspection Data,” Quality Technology & Quantitative Management, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2012, pp. 59–77.
  • Holland, S.D. “Thermographic Signal Reconstruction for Vibrothermography,” Infrared Physics & Technology, Vol. 54, No. 6, 2011, pp. 503–511.
  • Ibarra-Castanedo, C., J. Piau, S. Guilbert, N.P. Avdelidis, M. Genest, A. Bendada, and X.P.V. Maldague, “Comparative Study of Active Thermography Techniques for the Nondestructive Evaluation of Honeycomb Structures,” Research in Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 20, 2009, pp. 1–31.
  • Jin, X., B. Li, Y. Tian, N. Jin, and A. Duan, “Study on Fractal Characteristics of Cracks and Pore Structure of Concrete Based on Digital Image Technology,” Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering & Technology, Vol. 5, No. 11, 2013, pp. 3165–3171.
  • Kang, B., and P. Cawley, “Low PZT Exciter for Thermosonics,” Review of Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 26, 2007, pp. 484–491.
  • de Keersmaecker, M.L., P. Frankhauser, and I. Thomas, “Using Fractal Dimension for Characterizing Intra-urban Diversity: The Example of Brussels,” ERSA 2003 Congress, Jyvaskyla, Finland, September 2003, pp. 27–30.
  • Li, T., D.P. Almond, D.A.S. Rees, and B. Weekes, “Crack Imaging by Pulsed Laser Spot Thermography,” Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 214, No. 1, 2010a, pp. 1–4.
  • Li, T., D.P. Almond, D.A.S. Rees, B. Weekes, and S.G. Pickering, “Pulsed Laser SPOT Imaging Thermography, Modeling and Experimental Data,” Review of Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 29, 2010b, pp. 435–442.
  • Maldague, X.P.V., and S. Marinetti, “Pulse Phase Infrared Thermography,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 79, 1996, pp. 2694–2698.
  • Mandelbrot, B.B., “Self-affine Fractals and Fractal Dimension,” Physica Scripta, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1985, p. 257.
  • Mandelbrot, B.B., D.E. Passoja, and A.J. Paullay, “Fractal Character of Fracture Surfaces of Metals,” Nature, Vol. 308, April 1984, pp. 721–722.
  • Mandelbrot, B.B., The Fractal Geometry of Nature, first edition, W.H. Freemann and Co., London, England, 1982.
  • Manohar, A., and F. Lanza di Scalea, “Detection of Defects in Wind Turbine Composite Blades using Statistically Enhanced Lock-in Thermography,” Structural Health Monitoring, Vol. 12, Nos. 5–6, 2013, pp. 566–574.
  • Manohar, A., and F. Lanza di Scalea, “Wavelet‐aided Multivariate Outlier Analysis to Enhance Defect Contrast in Thermal Images,” Experimental Techniques, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2014, pp. 28–37.
  • Meola, C., V. Grasso, C. Toscano, and G.M. Carlomagno, “Nondestructive Evaluation of Fiber Reinforced Polymers with Lockin Thermography,” Residual Stress, Thermomechanics & Infrared Imaging, Hybrid Techniques and Inverse Problems, Vol. 8, 2014, pp. 207–213.
  • Morbidini, M., B. Kang, and P. Cawley, “Improved Reliability of Sonic Infrared Testing,” Materials Evaluation, Vol. 67, No. 10, 2009, pp. 1193–1202.
  • Morbidini, M., and P. Cawley, “Reliable Crack Detection in Thermosonics NDE,” Review of Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, 2008, pp. 536–543.
  • Piau, J.M., A.H. Bendada, and X. Maldague, “Ultrasound Vibrothermography Applications for Nondestructive Discontinuity Detection,” Materials Evaluation, Vol. 66, No. 10, 2008, pp. 1047–1052.
  • Pieczonka, L.J., W.J. Staszewski, F. Aymerich, T. Uhl, and M. Szwedo, “Numerical Simulation for Impact Damage Detection in Composites using Vibrothermography,” IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2010, pp. 1–8.
  • Polimeno, U., M. Meo, D.P. Almond, and S.L. Angioni, “Detecting Low Velocity Impact Damage in Composite Plate using Nonlinear Acoustic/Ultrasound Methods,” Applied Composite Materials, Vol. 17, No. 5, 2010, pp. 481–488.
  • Rajic, N. “Principal Component Thermography for Flaw Contrast Enhancement and Flaw Depth Characterisation in Composite Structures,” Composite Structures, Vol. 58, No. 4, 2002, pp. 521–528.
  • Rashed, A., D.P. Almond, D.A. Rees, S. Burrows, and S. Dixon, “Crack Detection by Laser Spot Imaging Thermography,” Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 894, No. 1, 2007, pp. 500–506.
  • Roche, J-M., F-H. Leroy, and D.L. Balageas, “Images of Thermographic Signal Reconstruction Coefficients: A Simple Way for Rapid and Efficient Detection of Discontinuities.” Materials Evaluation, Vol. 72, No. 1, 2014, pp. 73–82.
  • Roemer, J., L. Pieczonka, and T. Uhl, “Laser Spot Thermography of Welded Joints,” Diagnostyka, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2014, pp. 43–49.
  • Shepard, S.M., “US 6751342: System for generating thermographic images using thermographic signal reconstruction,” 15 June 2004.
  • Shull, P.J., Nondestructive Evaluation: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, New York, 2002.
  • Silva, F.E, L.L GonНalves, D.B.B. Fereira, and J.M.A. Rebello, “Characterization of Failure Mechanism in Composite Materials through Fractal Analysis of Acoustic Emission Signals,” Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2005, pp. 481–494.
  • Tsoi, K.A., and N. Rajic, “Interference Fit Fastener Inspection using Sonic Thermography,” Australian Journal of Mechanic Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2008, pp. 113–118.
  • Vandone, A., P. Rizzo, and M. Vanali, “Two-stage Algorithm for the Analysis of Infrared Images,” Research in Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2012, pp. 69–88.
  • Vavilov, V.P, and D.A. Nesteruk, “Comparative Analysis of Optical and Ultrasonic Stimulation of Flaws in Composite Materials,” Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing, Vol. 46, No. 2, 2009, pp. 147–150.
  • Weekes, B., P. Cawley, D.P. Almond, and T. Li, “The Effect of Crack Opening on Thermosonics and Laser Spot Thermography,” Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, 2010, p. 490.
  • Weng, Q., “Fractal Analysis of Satellite-detected Urban Heat Island Effect,” Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, Vol. 69, No. 5, 2003, pp. 555–566.
  • Zmeskal, O., M. Veselý, M. NežЗdal, and M. BuchnТček, “Fractal Analysis of Image Structures,” HarFA, Vol. 1, 2001, pp. 3–5.

 

Metrics
Usage Shares
Total Views
308 Page Views
Total Shares
0 Tweets
308
0 PDF Downloads
0
0 Facebook Shares
Total Usage
308