Complimentary Coded Thermal Wave Imaging Scheme for Thermal NonDestructive Testing and Evaluation

Abstract

Active InfraRed Thermography (IRT) is an emerging technique in the field of Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT&E). In recent years, pulse compression supportive techniques and associated data processing schemes have been proposed by various research groups to enhance the inspection capabilities of these techniques as well as to make the experimentation simple and more reliable. This paper exploits a suitable complementary coded excitation for thermal NDT&E along with the associated pulse compression favorable data processing scheme. The proposed scheme has been implemented on a metallic sample in order to test its capabilities for subsurface defect detection and characterization.