A non-destructive thermographic procedure for the estimation of mechanical properties in steel through thermal diffusivity measurements

Abstract

In this work, a thermographic non-destructive method has been investigated with the aim to estimate the mechanical properties of steels through thermal diffusivity measurements. Considering the anti-correlation between hardness and thermal diffusivity in steels, a thermographic procedure based on pulsed laser thermography has been used to investigate the technique's capability to discern different phase percentages in boron steel. After a discussion between two different methods to select the time window for thermographic measurements, an experimental investigation on nine specimens with three different phase percentages has been carried out, and a correlation among mechanical properties and phase percentages with different values of thermal diffusivity has been presented.