A novel method using infrared thermography for hot fluid leakage detection on surfaces with uneven emissivities

Abstract

Uneven surface emissivity will cause illusory temperature variation in infrared surface temperature mapping. For this reason, most of the detailed reviews on the use of infrared thermography (IRT) for leakage detection have mainly focused on surfaces with homogeneous emissivity or the recognition of negative temperature gradients, while reports on sensing hot fluid leakage for uneven surface emissivity are very rare. In this study, a hypothesis is put forward and a new leakage detection method is proposed that uses a transient heating-cooling-heating process in association with a subtraction method of infrared images to eliminate the disturbance of inhomogeneous valve surface emissivities. A theoretical analysis is established that is experimentally tested as a case study. The results shows that the hypothesis is clear and the effect of the uneven emissivity is suppressed for the recognition of positive temperature gradients (hot fluid leakage) on a metal valve sample. The current work provides new insights on the modification of the surface emissivity under certain conditions, which has been a major limitation of passive IRT in the past.