Blind characterization of materials using single-sided thermography

In various studies, thermographic methods have been used to measure thermophysical properties of materials. The most widely used such method is the Parker flash technique for diffusivity measurement, in which the transit time of a heat pulse applied to the front face of a sample of known thickness is measured by observing the temperature at the rear surface. In recent investigations, there has been considerable emphasis on single-sided techniques for materials characterization. Typically, quantitative analysis using a single-sided thermographic approach requires some a priori knowledge about the sample, such as thickness, thermal diffusivity, or perhaps a calibration standard with back drilled holes with known diameter and depth. In fact, in certain cases it is possible to use single side pulsed thermographic data to measure, or at least estimate, properties such as thickness, thermal diffusivity and subsurface feature depth with no a priori information about the sample.