NDE of Concrete Structures Strengthened with FRP Using Infrared Thermography

Published

July 1, 2002

Author(s)

M A. Starnes, Nicholas J. Carino, E A. Kausel

Abstract

Numerical and experimental methods are used to investigate the effectiveness of infrared thermography to estimate the width of subsurface flaws in fiber-reinforce polymer (FRP) laminates bonded to concrete. The study focuses on establishing the potential for quantitative infrared thermography, that is not only detecting but also characterizing subsurface flaws.Finite element analyses are used to examine surface temperature response due to simulated defects at the interfaces of FRP laminates applied to a concrete substrate. In particular, the effects of flaw width and flaw depth are studied. It is concluded that the minimum detectable flaw width depends on flaw depth and the thermal resolution of the infrared detection system. A procedure is proposed for estimating the flaw width based on the point of inflection in the surface temperature profile measured along a given line.Controlled-flaw experiments are performed to verify the procedure for estimating the width of subsurface flaws. Good agreement is found between the estimated and actual flaw dimensions. Data smoothing is shown to be effective in removing noise from measured temperature profiles.

Proceedings Title

3rd International Conference on the Behavior of Damaged Structures

Conference Dates

July 29-30, 2002

Conference Title

DAMSTRUC 2002

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

fiber reinforced polymer composites, finite element modeling, infrared thermography, nondestructive testing

Citation

Starnes, M. , Carino, N. and Kausel, E. (2002), NDE of Concrete Structures Strengthened with FRP Using Infrared Thermography, 3rd International Conference on the Behavior of Damaged Structures (Accessed July 12, 2026)

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