Early detection of thermal contrast in pulsed stimulated thermography

Abstract

Stimulated Infrared Thermography (TIS) is a fast and global method for NonDestructive Evaluation (NDE). Among the recently emerging NDE methods, it is probably the less intrusive one since it really needs no contact at all with the tested structure. A new inversion technique, using an early detection of the contrast, is presented to demonstrate how it recovers the depth of the defects with accuracy and partially removes the effects produced by the lateral heat diffusion.