Research on the Infrared Thermographic Detection of Concrete under Solar Heating

Abstract

Infrared thermography for detecting defects in concrete structures is closely related to the heat source and the optimized method of the thermal image. Due to the limitation of the irradiation area of the heat source, it is inefficient to detect the defects in large concrete structures. In this paper, sunlight was employed as a heat source to detect the defects with different sizes and depths in concrete, and the measured infrared images were processed and optimized by an enhancement algorithm. The experimental results showed that the defects in concrete could be rapidly identified under sunlight. The effect of environment, view angle, and boundary can be eliminated by image preprocessing, and the histogram equalization algorithm can increase the detection depth of the defects. The research results can also provide a reference for the infrared detection technology of concrete under the weak heat source.