Thermal Effusivity Tomography from Pulsed Thermal Imaging

Software · Fri Dec 01 05:00:00 EST 2006

OSTI ID:1231120

Sun, Jiangang

The software program generates 3D volume distribution of thermal effusivity within a test material from one-sided pulsed thermal imaging data. Thsi is the first software capable of accurate, fast and automated thermal tomographic imaging of inhomogeneous materials to produce 3D images similar to those obtained from 3D X-ray CT (all previous thermal-imaging software can only produce 2D results). Because thermal effusivity is an intrisic material property that is related to material constituent, density, conductivity, etc., quantitative imaging of effusivity allowed direct visualization of material's internal constituent/structure and damage distributions, thereby potentially leading to quantitative prediction of other material properties such as strength. I can be therefre be used for 3D imaging of material structure in fundamental material studies, nondestructive characterization of defects/flaws in structural engineering components, health monitoring of material damage and degradation during service, and medical imaging and diagnostics. This technology is one-sided, non contact and sensitive to material's thermal property and discontinuity. One major advantage of this tomographic technology over x-ray CT and ultrasounds is its natural efficiency for 3D imaging of the volume under a large surface area. This software is implemented with a method for thermal computed tomography of thermal effusivity from one-sided pulsed thermal imaging (or thermography) data. The method is based on several solutions of the governing heat transfer equation under pulsed thermography test condition. In particular, it consists of three components. 1) It utilized the thermal effusivity as the imaging parameter to construct the 3D image. 2) It established a relationship between the space (depth) and the time, because thermography data are in the time domain. 3) It incorporated a deconvolution algorithm to solve the depth porfile of the material thermal effusivity from the measured (temporal) surface temperature data. The predicted effusivity is a direct function of depth, not an average or convolved parameter, so it is an accurate (and more sensitive) representation of local property along depth.

• Short Name / Acronym: TET; 002290IBMPC00
• Site Accession Number: ANL-SF-06-017
• Version: 00
• Programming Language(s): Medium: X; OS: Microsoft Windows 2000, XP and similar
• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1231120
• Country of Origin: United States