Development in Infrared Thermography for Non-Destructive Testing on Concrete Structures in New Millennium

This paper aims to illustrate the use of infrared thermography as a nondestructive, real-time and non contact technique to detect, observe and evaluate the evolution of temperature changes caused by the diverse physical processes of irreversible physical phenomena. The results obtained highlight the advantages of differential infrared thermography: first to observe the physical manifestation of damage and the mechanism of failure of concrete, second to detect the occurrence of intrinsic dissipation localization, and third to evaluate the fatigue strength in a very short time, compared to traditional testing techniques. This technique minimizes the thermal noise in real or industrial environments and thus facilitates the detection, discrimination and interpretation of the diverse dissipative phenomena involved in these non-linear coupled thermo mechanical effects within the framework of a consistent theoretical background. At the structural level, breakdown appears as micro cracking and possibly slippage at component interfaces. In addition to traditional techniques of mechanical strength evaluation, it provides a ready evaluation of a limit of acceptable damage under service loading beyond which the material will be rapidly destroyed, or of fatigue resistance under cyclic excitations or dynamic solicitations. And can be used from the above results reviews in development in infrared thermography for non-destructive testing on concrete structures in new millennium.