Ultrasonic infrared thermography and its applications in nondestructiveevaluation

An ultrasonic infrared thermography has been developed based on photother mal infrared detection, in which a short pulsed ultrasound is used as excitation source and an infrared (IR) camera is used to detect the temperature distribution of the sample. As the ultrasonic pulse is absorbed by cracks or other defects the local temperature increases additionally, then the IR camera can display the cracks or defects in real-time. The new technique has the advantages of ultrasonic and IR camera imagings, and has been widely applied in NDE and NDT.