Title: Non-destructive testing by infrared thermography of the void and honeycomb type defect in the concrete

Authors: Sougrati Belattar; Jamal Rhazi; Adessamad El Ballouti

Addresses: Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, B.P. 239/40000, Marrakech, Morocco. ' Department of Civil Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke (Québec) J1K 2R1, Canada. ' National School of Applied Sciences, B.P. 1166, El Jadida Plateau, Morocco

Abstract: Infrared thermography is a thermal method of non-destructive testing which can contribute to the integrity evaluation of the civil engineering structures, especially when the question is to detect the defects close to surface. Its principle is based on the analysis of the thermal images captured on a surface of the suspect structure. This method has several advantages, among others, one can quote the non-destructive character, measurement can be done without contact with the suspect object and the results can be immediately exploited without any preliminary treatment. This work consists in studying the aptitude of infrared thermography to detect the void and honeycomb type of defects in a non-reinforced concrete slab. It is a question of analysing thermal images raised in experiments by infrared camera then images simulated numerically by computation software. The results presented in this study show the influence of the defect nature and position, the heating duration and the moment of the thermal images taking on the detectability of the anomalies present in the structure.

Keywords: infrared thermography; nondestructive testing; NDT; voids; honeycomb defects; non-reinforced concrete slabs; finite element method; FEM; concrete defects; thermal images.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMP.2012.047489

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties, 2012 Vol.7 No.2/3, pp.235 - 253

Published online: 24 Jun 2012 *

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