Concrete Pavement Service Condition Assessment Using Infrared Thermography

Abstract

Infrared thermography (IRT), an effective nondestructive testing method, is used to obtain an initial evaluation of the concrete pavement surface and near surface in a time effective manner. In this paper, the effect of the depth of delamination inside concrete pavement on infrared thermography technique is studied for bridge decks inspection. To be able to mimic the delamination in subsurface, two Styrofoam cubes have been inserted in different depth near the surface of the concrete cylinder. After heating up the specimen, thermal images were taken from the surface using an infrared thermal camera to evaluate the effect of subsurface defects on detection sensitivity and accuracy. We also investigated the precision to which the shape and the size of the subsurface anomalies can be perceived using an uncooled thermal camera. To achieve this goal, we used image processing technique to accurately compute the size of delamination in order to compare it with the actual size. In addition, distance/thermal graph is used to detect the presence of the defect underneath the concrete surface. Furthermore, thermal transfer modeling was adopted in this paper to assist the setup of this experiment and the results are compared with laboratory findings.

Lab-Controlled Experimental Evaluation of Heat-Reflective Coatings by Increasing Surface Albedo for Cool Pavements in Urban Areas

“…However, our thermal camera, FLIR T430SC, records long-wave infrared radiation between 7 μm and 14 μm. From here, the camera calculates the temperature of the objects surface using Equation (2) [31]:…”

“…In this equation, there are still several unknowns that the camera must also calculate. These are the atmospheric temperature, which is simply measured with a thermometer; the reflected temperature and emissivity, which are both calibrated for the camera before From here, the camera calculates the temperature of the objects surface using Equation (2) [31]:…”

“…The atmospheric transmission is high (close to 1.0) at small distances around 25-50 m or less; therefore, the relative humidity does not have a large effect on readings unless the camera is at further distances from the target object, which is always the case for our experiment. It is noteworthy that we successfully published a series of infrastructure condition assessment studies using thermography [30][31][32]. Other impacts of ambient weather conditions on the temperature of pavements are introduced in the following section.…”

Attention‐Based Convolutional Neural Network for Pavement Crack Detection

“…Pavement cracks are a common symptom and an early sign of potential damages and degradation in the pavements [1][2][3][4]. However, due to heavy traffic and drastic environmental changes, cracks can significantly affect the performance and functionality of the asphalt pavement projects and eventually lead to structural deterioration and a shortened service time.…”

Evaluation of the Uniformity of Protective Coatings on Concrete Structure Surfaces Based on Cluster Analysis

“…Ptacek Lisa [20] introduced a nondestructive inspection method for concrete curing quality by near-infrared hyperspectral imaging, and the results showed that the method was highly reliable for distinguishing different curing types of concrete. Lu Yang [21] used infrared thermography to take thermal images from the surface to assess the effect of subsurface defects on the sensitivity and accuracy of detection. Jang Keunyoung [22] proposed an autonomous detection technique for concrete cracks based on deep learning by combining hybrid images of visual and infrared thermal imaging images.…”