Takahide Sakagami

Development of self-reference lock-in thermography and its application to remote nondestructive inspection of fatigue cracks in steel bridges

A new remote nondestructive evaluation technique, based on thermoelastic temperature measurement by the infrared thermography, was developed for evaluation of fatigue cracks propagated from welded joints in steel bridges. Fatigue cracks were detected from localized thermoelastic temperature change at crack tips due to stress singularity under wheel loading from traffics on the bridge. Self-reference lock-in data processing technique was developed for the improvement of signal-to-noise ratio of the thermal images obtained in the crack detection process. In this paper, experimental results of fatigue crack detection by the self-reference lock-in thermography are reviewed.

Detection of Dentinal Microcracks Using Infrared Thermography

INTRODUCTION It is difficult to make a definite diagnosis of a cracked tooth solely based on an inspection within the root canal, especially in case of microcracks. At present, there seems to be no established method to detect dentinal microcracks in roots; therefore, the current detection techniques need to be improved. Vibrothermography (VibroIR) helps to detect microcracks by the friction heat generated from ultrasonic vibration. The purpose of this study was to establish a novel method using VibroIR to detect dentinal microcracks. METHODS The root canals of 20 roots with cracks and control roots were prepared after removing the tooth crowns. A tapered indenter was inserted into the root canal and pressed until a microcrack was created under an optical microscope. Using VibroIR, the detection trials for dentinal microcracks were performed with an ultrasonic vibration power ranging from 0.43 to 1.48 W at an angle of 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° between the ultrasonic vibration point and the microcrack line. After the detection test, the microcrack width was measured with an optical microscope. RESULTS Frictional heat was detected in the microcracks with thermography at 0.89 to 1.48 W and at an ultrasonic vibration point angle less than 60° from the crack line for 10 seconds. Microcracks with a width of 4 to 35.5 μm were detected with this method. CONCLUSIONS VibroIR may be an effective method for the diagnosis of root dentinal microcracks.

Experimental Study of Relationship between Energy Dissipation and Fatigue Damage from Observation of Slip Band by Atomic Force Microscope

In recent years, fatigue limit estimation based on dissipated energy has been introduced in various industries because of its time and cost effectiveness. However, the mechanism of energy dissipation and the relationship between energy dissipation and fatigue damage have not been investigated well. In this study, mechanism of energy dissipation is investigated in relation with formulation of slip bands for JIS type 316L stainless steel through observation of slip bands by optical microscope and atomic force microscope.

Applications of infrared thermography for nondestructive testing of fatigue cracks in steel bridges

In recent years, fatigue crack propagations in aged steel bridge which may lead to catastrophic structural failures have become a serious problem. For large-scale steel structures such as orthotropic steel decks in highway bridges, nondestructive inspection of deteriorations and fatigue damages are indispensable for securing their safety and for estimating their remaining strength. As conventional NDT techniques for steel bridges, visual testing, magnetic particle testing and ultrasonic testing have been commonly employed. However, these techniques are time- and labor- consuming techniques, because special equipment is required for inspection, such as scaffolding or a truck mount aerial work platform. In this paper, a new thermography NDT technique, which is based on temperature gap appeared on the surface of structural members due to thermal insulation effect of the crack, is developed for detection of fatigue cracks. The practicability of the developed technique is demonstrated by the field experiments for highway steel bridges in service. Detectable crack size and factors such as measurement time, season or spatial resolution which influence crack detectability are investigated.

Application of infrared thermography to structural integrity evaluation of steel bridges

A new remote nondestructive evaluation technique based on thermoelastic temperature measurement by infrared thermography was developed for the evaluation of fatigue cracks propagating from welded joints in steel bridges. Fatigue cracks were detected from localized thermoelastic temperature changes at crack tips due to stress singularities generated by wheel loading from traffic on a bridge. A self-reference lock-in data-processing technique was developed to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the thermal images obtained in the crack detection process. Thermoelastic stress analyses in the vicinity of crack tips were carried out after the crack detection process by self-reference lock-in thermography. The stress distribution under wheel loading by traffic was measured by infrared thermography. Stress intensity factors were directly evaluated from the measured stress distribution. It was found that these fracture mechanics parameters can be evaluated with reasonable accuracy by the proposed technique, enabling the assessment of structural integrity based on the evaluated fracture mechanics parameters.

Successful Application of Thermoelasticity to Remote Inspection of Fatigue Cracks

A new remote nondestructive inspection technique based on thermoelastic temperature measurement by infrared thermography was developed for the detection of fatigue cracks in steel bridges. Fatigue cracks were detected from localized thermoelastic temperature changes at crack tips due to stress singularities generated by wheel loading from traffic on a bridge. Self-reference lock-in data-processing technique and motion compensating technique were developed to improve the thermal images obtained in the crack detection process. Advantages and limitations of the proposed nondestructive evaluation technique were discussed based on results of field experiments for highway bridges. Thermoelastic stress analyses in the vicinity of crack tips were also carried out after the crack detection process by self-reference lock-in thermography. The stress distribution under wheel loading by traffic was measured by infrared thermography. Stress intensity factors were evaluated from measured stress distribution. It was found that these fracture mechanics parameters can be evaluated with reasonable accuracy by the proposed technique, enabling the assessment of structural integrity based on the evaluated fracture mechanics parameters.

Fatigue damage evaluation of short fiber CFRP based on phase information of thermoelastic temperature change

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) is widely used for structural members of transportation vehicles such as automobile, aircraft or spacecraft, utilizing its excellent specific strength and specific rigidity in contrast with the metal. Short carbon fiber composite materials are receiving a lot of attentions because of their excellent moldability and productivity, however they show complicated behaviors in fatigue fracture due to the random fibers orientation. In this study, thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) using an infrared thermography was applied to the evaluation of fatigue damage in short carbon fiber composites. The distributions of the thermoelastic temperature change was measured during the fatigue test, as well as the phase difference between the thermoelastic temperature change and applied loading signal. Evolution of fatigue damages was detected from distributions of thermoelastic temperature change according to the thermoelastic damage analysis (TDA) procedure. It was also found that fatigue damage evolution was clearly detected than ever by the newly developed thermoelastic phase damage analysis (TPDA) in which damaged area was emphasized in the differential phase delay images utilizing the nature that carbon fiber show opposite phase thermoelastic temperature change.

Detection of fatigue cracks in steel bridges by self-reference lock-in thermography

A new remote nondestructive inspection technique that is based on thermoelastic temperature measurement by infrared thermography was developed for the evaluation of fatigue cracks propagated from welded joints in steel bridges. Fatigue cracks were detected from localized high thermoelastic temperature changes observed at crack tips induced by stress singularity under variable loading resulting from traffic on the bridge. A self-reference lock-in data processing technique was developed for improving the signal/noise ratio of the thermal images recorded in the crack detection process. In this study, remote and nondestructive detection of fatigue cracks in an actual steel bridge in service was performed by the self-reference lock-in thermography method. The accuracy of this method was improved with a motion compensation technique.

Fatigue Damage Evaluation of Short Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics Based on Phase Information of Thermoelastic Temperature Change

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) is widely used for structural members of transportation vehicles such as automobile, aircraft, or spacecraft, utilizing its excellent specific strength and specific rigidity in contrast with the metal. Short carbon fiber composite materials are receiving a lot of attentions because of their excellent moldability and productivity, however they show complicated behaviors in fatigue fracture due to the random fibers orientation. In this study, thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) using an infrared thermography was applied to evaluate fatigue damage in short carbon fiber composites. The distribution of the thermoelastic temperature change was measured during the fatigue test, as well as the phase difference between the thermoelastic temperature change and applied loading signal. Evolution of fatigue damage was detected from the distribution of thermoelastic temperature change according to the thermoelastic damage analysis (TDA) procedure. It was also found that fatigue damage evolution was more clearly detected than before by the newly developed thermoelastic phase damage analysis (TPDA) in which damaged area was emphasized in the differential phase delay images utilizing the property that carbon fiber shows opposite phase thermoelastic temperature change.

A new approach for evaluating stress intensity factor based on thermoelastic stress analysis

Thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) using by infrared thermography has been widely used as an effective full-field stress measurement technique. The present authors applied TSA technique to nondestructive evaluation of fatigue cracks in steel bridges, in which fatigue cracks were detected based on singular stress fields observed around crack tips and structural integrity was evaluated based on stress intensity factor calculated from observed near tip stress field. In this paper, a new approach for evaluating stress intensity factor based on TSA technique is proposed. The coefficients including stress intensity factor in the near tip stress field function expressed in higher order terms are determined by the least square fitting using experimentally obtained data by TSA. It was found that values of stress intensity factors K I and K II were obtained in good accuracy.