TY - JOUR A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Kästner, L. A1 - Hauffen, Jan Christian A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Photothermal-SR-Net: A customized deep unfolding neural network for photothermal super resolution imaging N2 - This article presents deep unfolding neural networks to handle inverse problems in photothermal radiometry enabling super-resolution (SR) imaging. The photothermal SR approach is a well-known technique to overcome the spatial resolution limitation in photothermal imaging by extracting high-frequency spatial components based on the deconvolution with the thermal point spread function (PSF). However, stable deconvolution can only be achieved by using the sparse structure of defect patterns, which often requires tedious, handcrafted tuning of hyperparameters and results in computationally intensive algorithms. On this account, this article proposes Photothermal-SR-Net, which performs deconvolution by deep unfolding considering the underlying physics. Since defects appear sparsely in materials, our approach includes trained block-sparsity thresholding in each convolutional layer. This enables to super-resolve 2-D thermal images for nondestructive testing (NDT) with a substantially improved convergence rate compared to classic approaches. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated on various deep unfolding and thresholding approaches. Furthermore, we explored how to increase the reconstruction quality and the computational performance. Thereby, it was found that the computing time for creating high-resolution images could be significantly reduced without decreasing the reconstruction quality by using pixel binning as a preprocessing step. KW - Deep unfolding KW - Defect reconstruction KW - Elastic net KW - Inverse problems KW - Iterative shrinkage thresholding KW - Neural network KW - Nondestructive testing (NDT) KW - Photothermal imaging KW - Super resolution (SR) KW - Thermography PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1109/tim.2022.3154803 SN - 1557-9662 VL - 71 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - IEEE AN - OPUS4-54678 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Burgholzer, P. A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Caire, G. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Laser excited super resolution thermal imaging for nondestructive inspection of internal defects N2 - A photothermal super resolution technique is proposed for an improved inspection of internal defects. To evaluate the potential of the laser-based thermographic technique, an additively manufactured stainless steel specimen with closely spaced internal cavities is used. Four different experimental configurations in transmission, reflection, stepwise and continuous scanning are investigated. The applied image post-processing method is based on compressed sensing and makes use of the block sparsity from multiple measurement events. This concerted approach of experimental measurement strategy and numerical optimization enables the resolution of internal defects and outperforms conventional thermographic inspection techniques. KW - Super Resolution KW - Laser Thermography KW - Non Destructive Testing KW - Comressed Sensing KW - Inverse Problem KW - Thermography PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-519016 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77979-y VL - 10 IS - 1 SP - 22357 PB - Springer Nature AN - OPUS4-51901 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Karagianni, Christina A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Burgholzer, P. A1 - Mayr, G. A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Caire, G. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Photothermal super resolution image reconstruction using structured 1D laser illumination N2 - The separation of two closely spaced defects in fields of Thermographic NDE is very challenging. The diffusive nature of thermal waves leads to a fundamental limitation in spatial resolution. Therefore, super resolution image reconstruction can be used. A new concerted ansatz based on spatially structured heating and joint sparsity of the signal ensemble allows for an improved reconstruction of closely spaced defects. This new technique has been studied using a 1D laser array with randomly chosen illumination pattern. This paper presents the results after applying super resolution algorithms, such as the iterative joint sparsity (IJOSP) algorithm, to our processed measurement data. Different data processing techniques before applying the IJOSP algorithm as well as the influence of regularization parameters in the data processing techniques are discussed. Moreover, the degradation of super resolution reconstruction goodness by the choice of experimental parameters such as laser line width or number of measurements is shown. The application of the super resolution results in a spatial resolution enhancement of approximately a factor of four which leads to a better separation of two closely spaced defects. T2 - Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation Conference 2019 CY - Portland, OR, USA DA - 14.07.2019 KW - Super resolution KW - Photothermal KW - Thermography KW - Laser PY - 2019 SP - Paper 8593, 1 PB - ASME AN - OPUS4-50924 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Burgholzer, P. A1 - Berer, T. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Gruber, J. A1 - Mayr, G. A1 - Hendorfer, G. T1 - Blind structured illumination as excitation for super-resolution photothermal radiometry N2 - Using an infrared camera for radiometric imaging allows the contactless temperature measurement of multiple surface pixels simultaneously. From the measured surface data, a sub-surface structure, embedded inside a sample or tissue, can be reconstructed and imaged when heated by an excitation light pulse. The main drawback in radiometric imaging is the degradation of the spatial resolution with increasing depth, which results in blurred images for deeper lying structures. We circumvent this degradation with blind structured illumination, combined with a non-linear joint sparsity reconstruction algorithm. The ground-breaking concept of super-resolution can be transferred from optics to thermographic imaging. T2 - Conference QIRT 2018 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 25.06.2018 KW - Thermography KW - Laser thermography KW - Super resolution PY - 2018 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-454506 SN - 978-3-940283-94-8 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/17686733.2019.1655247 SP - We.3.A.2, 1 EP - 7 AN - OPUS4-45450 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Burgholzer, P. A1 - Berer, T. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Gruber, J. A1 - Mayr, G. A1 - Hendorfer, G. T1 - Blind structured illumination as excitation for super-resolution photothermal radiometry N2 - Photothermal radiometry with an infrared camera allows the contactless temperature measurement of multiple surface pixels simultaneously. A short light pulse heats the sample. The heat propagates through the sample by diffusion and the corresponding temperature evolution is measured at the sample’s surface by an infrared camera. The main drawback in radiometric imaging is the loss of the spatial resolution with increasing depth due to heat diffusion, which results in blurred images for deeper lying structures. We circumvent this information loss due to the diffusion process by using blind structured illumination, combined with a non-linear joint sparsity reconstruction algorithm. The structured illumination is realized by parallel laser lines from a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array controlled by a random binary pattern generator. By using 150 different patterns of structured illumination and our iterative joint sparsity algorithm, it was possible to resolve 1 mm thick lines at a distance down to 0.5 mm, which results in a resolution enhancement of approximately a factor of four compared to the resolution of 5.9 mm for homogenous illuminated thermographic reconstruction. KW - Super-resolution imaging KW - Thermography KW - Blind structured illumination KW - VCSEL array PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/17686733.2019.1655247 SN - 1768-6733 VL - 17 IS - 4 SP - 268 EP - 278 PB - Taylor & Francis Group CY - Milton, UK AN - OPUS4-49122 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hauffen, J. C. A1 - Kästner, L. A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Caire, G. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Learned block iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm for photothermal super resolution imaging N2 - Block-sparse regularization is already well known in active thermal imaging and is used for multiple-measurement-based inverse problems. The main bottleneck of this method is the choice of regularization parameters which differs for each experiment. We show the benefits of using a learned block iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm (LBISTA) that is able to learn the choice of regularization parameters, without the need to manually select them. In addition, LBISTA enables the determination of a suitable weight matrix to solve the underlying inverse problem. Therefore, in this paper we present LBISTA and compare it with state-of-the-art block iterative shrinkage thresholding using synthetically generated and experimental test data from active thermography for defect reconstruction. Our results show that the use of the learned block-sparse optimization approach provides smaller normalized mean square errors for a small fixed number of iterations. Thus, this allows us to improve the convergence speed and only needs a few iterations to generate accurate defect reconstruction in photothermal super-resolution imaging. KW - Thermography KW - Laser KW - Machine learning KW - Optimization KW - Non-destructive testing KW - NDT KW - Neural network KW - Defect reconstruction KW - Block-sparsity KW - Active thermal imaging KW - Regularization KW - Laser thermography PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-554598 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22155533 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 IS - 15 SP - 1 EP - 15 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-55459 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hempel, M. A1 - Tomm, J.W. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Elsaesser, T. A1 - Michel, N. A1 - Krakowski, M. T1 - Catastrophic optical damage at front and rear facets of diode lasers N2 - Single-pulse tests of the catastrophic optical damage (COD) are performed for three batches of diode lasers with different gain-regions. The tests involve in situ inspection of front, rear, and side of the devices by a thermocamera. Devices with an Al-containing gain-region show COD at the front facet, as expected for strong facet heating via surface recombination and reabsorption of laser light. In contrast, Al-free devices with low surface recombination rates tend to fail at the rear facet, pointing to a different heating scenario. The high carrier density at the rear facet favors heating and COD via Auger recombination processes. KW - Thermography KW - Catastrophic optical damage KW - High power diode lasers KW - Destructive testing KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Auger effect KW - Carrier density KW - Heating KW - Laser beam effects KW - Optical testing KW - Semiconductor lasers KW - Surface recombination PY - 2010 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3524235 SN - 0003-6951 SN - 1077-3118 VL - 97 IS - 23 SP - 231101-1 - 231101-3 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY AN - OPUS4-22763 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hempel, M. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Schwirzke-Schaaf, S. A1 - Tomm, J.W. A1 - Jankowski, D. A1 - Schröder, D. T1 - Spectroscopic analysis of packaging concepts for high-power diode laser bars N2 - Double-side cooled high-power diode laser bars packaged by different techniques on different types of passive heat sinks are analyzed in terms of packaging-induced strain. Reference data from standard devices being single-side cooled only and packaged by conventional soft and hard soldering are also presented. Thermal profiling across the devices complements the results. The most suitable packaging architecture and technique for double-side cooled bars is identified. Measurements of the laser emission near field and electroluminescence pattern provide direct reference to the functionality of the devices. Furthermore, a type of cross calibration of the methods used for strain analysis is made, since all techniques are applied to the same set of bars. This involves micro photoluminescence, micro Raman, and degree-of-polarization electroluminescence spectroscopy. KW - Spectroscopy KW - Semiconductor laser KW - Thermography KW - High-power diode lasers KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2012 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-012-6799-4 SN - 0947-8396 VL - 107 IS - 2 SP - 371 EP - 377 PB - Springer CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-25789 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hempel, M. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Tomm, J.W. A1 - Elsaesser, T. A1 - Michel, N. A1 - Krakowski, M. T1 - Time-resolved analysis of catastrophic optical damage in 975 nm emitting diode lasers N2 - Catastrophic optical damage (COD) is analyzed during single current pulse excitation of 975 nm emitting diode lasers. Power transients and thermal images are monitored during each pulse. The COD process is unambiguously related to the occurrence of a “thermal flash” of Planck’s radiation. We observe COD to ignite multiple times in subsequent pulses. Thermography allows for tracing a spatial motion of the COD site on the front facet of the devices. The time constant of power decay after the onset of COD has values from 400 to 2000 ns, i.e., an order of magnitude longer than observed for shorter-wavelength devices. KW - Semiconductor laser KW - Thermography KW - Catastrophic optical damage KW - High-power diode lasers PY - 2010 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3456388 SN - 0003-6951 SN - 1077-3118 VL - 96 IS - 251105 SP - 1 EP - 3 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville, NY AN - OPUS4-21672 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Kunji Purayil, Sruthi Krishna A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Pech May, Nelson Wilbur A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Maldague, X. T1 - Robotic-Assisted 3D Scanning and Laser Thermography for Crack Inspection on Complex Components N2 - The integration of automation and robotics into non-destructive testing (NDT) marks a significant advancement in evaluating complex components. This paper introduces a novel approach using robotic-assisted laser thermography combined with automated 3D scanning to detect and analyze cracks in complex structures. The system uses an integrated line scanner with a robotic arm to capture high-resolution data, creating detailed 3D models for adaptive path planning and precise alignment correction. Laser thermography, based on localized heating and the "flying spot" approach, detects surfacenear cracks with high precision. Crack detection is achieved using the Canny algorithm optional on Fourier-transformed thermograms, offering robust results with minimal computation. This study highlights the potential of robotic-assisted 3D scanning and laser thermography as efficient and precise methods for crack inspection, advancing NDT technologies and ensuring the structural integrity of modern components. T2 - 17th International Conference on Quantitative InfraRed Thermography 2024 CY - Zagreb, Croatia DA - 01.07.2024 KW - Thermography KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Laser line KW - Robotic arm KW - Defect identification KW - Crack detection PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-653809 DO - https://doi.org/10.21611/qirt-2024-078 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - QIRT Council AN - OPUS4-65380 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Kimata, M. ED - Shaw, J. A. ED - Valenta, C. R. T1 - Investigations on photothermal super resolution reconstruction using 2D-structured illumination patterns N2 - Active thermography as a nondestructive testing modality suffers greatly from the limitations imposed by the diffusive nature of heat conduction in solids. As a rule of thumb, the detection and resolution of internal defects/inhomogeneities is limited to a defect depth to defect size ratio greater than or equal to one. Earlier, we demonstrated that this classical limit can be overcome for 1D and 2D defect geometries by using photothermal laser-scanning super resolution. In this work we report a new experimental approach using 2D spatially structured illumination patterns in conjunction with compressed sensing and computational imaging methods to significantly decrease the experimental complexity and make the method viable for investigating larger regions of interest. T2 - Future Sensing Technologies Conference 2021 CY - Online meeting DA - 15.11.2021 KW - Thermography KW - Super resolution KW - NDT KW - Inspection KW - Image resolution PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2603838 VL - 11914 SP - 124 EP - 131 PB - International Society for Optics and Photonics. SPIE AN - OPUS4-53745 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Thermographic detection of internal defects using 2D photothermal super resolution reconstruction with sequential laser heating N2 - Thermographic photothermal super resolution reconstruction enables the resolution of internal defects/inhomogeneities below the classical limit, which is governed by the diffusion properties of thermal wave propagation. Based on a combination of the application of special sampling strategies and a subsequent numerical optimization step in post-processing, thermographic super resolution has already proven to be superior to standard thermographic methods in the detection of one-dimensional defect/inhomogeneity structures. In our work, we report an extension of the capabilities of the method for efficient detection and resolution of defect cross sections with fully two-dimensional structured laser-based heating. The reconstruction is carried out using one of two different algorithms that are proposed within this work. Both algorithms utilize the combination of several coherent measurements using convex optimization and exploit the sparse nature of defects/inhomogeneities as is typical for most nondestructive testing scenarios. Finally, the performance of each algorithm is rated on reconstruction quality and algorithmic complexity. The presented experimental approach is based on repeated spatially structured heating by a high power laser. As a result, a two-dimensional sparse defect/inhomogeneity map can be obtained. In addition, the obtained results are compared with those of conventional thermographic inspection methods that make use of homogeneous illumination. Due to the sparse nature of the reconstructed defect/inhomogeneity map, this comparison is performed qualitatively. KW - Thermography KW - Super resolution KW - NDT KW - Inspection KW - Internal defects PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-548351 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0088102 SN - 1089-7550 VL - 131 IS - 18 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - AIP Publishing AN - OPUS4-54835 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Zalameda, J. N. ED - Mendioroz, A. T1 - Full-frame thermographic super-resolution with 2D-structured laser heating N2 - Thermographic super-resolution techniques allow the resolution of defects/inhomogeneities beyond the classical limit, which is governed by the diffusion properties of thermal wave propagation. Photothermal super-resolution is based on a combination of an experimental scanning strategy and a numerical optimization which has been proven to be superior to standard thermographic methods in the case of 1D linear defects. In this contribution, we report on the extension of this approach towards a full frame 2D photothermal super-resolution technique. The experimental approach is based on a repeated spatially structured heating using high power lasers. In a second post-processing step, several measurements are coherently combined using mathematical optimization and taking advantage of the (joint) sparsity of the defects in the sample. In our work we extend the possibilities of the method to efficiently detect and resolve defect cross sections with a fully 2D-structured blind illumination. T2 - Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XLIII CY - Online meeting DA - 12.04.2021 KW - Thermography KW - super-resolution KW - NDT KW - Inspection KW - Image resolution PY - 2021 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2586093 VL - 11743 SP - 11743-26, 10 PB - SPIE AN - OPUS4-52524 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - 2D-Photothermal Super Resolution with Sparse Matrix Stacking N2 - Thermographic super resolution techniques allow the spatial resolution of defects/inhomogeneities below the classical limit, which is governed by the diffusion properties of thermal wave propagation. In this work, we report on the extension of this approach towards a full frame 2D super resolution technique. The approach is based on a repeated spatially structured heating using high power lasers. In a second post-processing step, several measurements are coherently combined using mathematical optimization and taking advantage of the (joint) sparsity of the defects in the sample T2 - Sensor and Measurement Science International Conference SMSI 2021 CY - Online meeting DA - 03.05.2021 KW - Thermography KW - Super-resolution KW - NDT KW - Inspection KW - Image resolution PY - 2021 SN - 978-3-9819376-4-0 DO - https://doi.org/10.5162/SMSI2021/C2.2 VL - SMSI 2021 - Sensors and Instrumentation SP - 183 EP - 184 AN - OPUS4-52589 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Mendioroz, A. ED - Avdelidis, N. P. T1 - Thermographic testing using 2D pseudo-random illumination and photothermal super resolution reconstruction N2 - Due to the diffusive nature of heat propagation in solids, the detection and resolution of internal defects with active thermography based non-destructive testing is commonly limited to a defect-depth-to-defect-size ratio greater than or equal to one. In the more recent past, we have already demonstrated that this limitation can be overcome by using a spatially modulated illumination source and photothermal super resolution-based reconstruction. Furthermore, by relying on compressed sensing and computational imaging methods we were able to significantly reduce the experimental complexity to make the method viable for investigating larger regions of interest. In this work we share our progress on improving the defect/inhomogeneity characterization using fully 2D spatially structured illumination patterns instead of scanning with a single laser spot. The experimental approach is based on the repeated blind pseudo-random illumination using modern projector technology and a high-power laser. In the subsequent post-processing, several measurements are then combined by taking advantage of the joint sparsity of the defects within the sample applying 2D-photothermal super resolution reconstruction. Here, enhanced nonlinear convex optimization techniques are utilized for solving the underlying ill-determined inverse problem for typical simple defect geometries. As a result, a higher resolution defect/inhomogeneity map can be obtained at a fraction of the measurement time previously needed. T2 - Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XLIV CY - Orlando, Florida, USA DA - 05.04.2022 KW - Thermography KW - Super resolution KW - NDT KW - Material testing KW - Internal defects KW - DMD KW - DLP PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2618562 SN - 0277-786X VL - 12109 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - SPIE AN - OPUS4-54909 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Maldague, X. T1 - Detection of internal defects applying photothermal super resolution reconstruction utilizing two-dimensional high-power random pixel patterns N2 - In this work, we report on our progress for investigating a new experimental approach for thermographic detection of internal defects by performing 2D photothermal super resolution reconstruction. We use modern high-power laser projector technology to repeatedly excite the sample surface photothermally with varying spatially structured 2D pixel patterns. In the subsequent (blind) numerical reconstruction, multiple measurements are combined by exploiting the joint-sparse nature of the defects within the specimen using nonlinear convex optimization methods. As a result, a 2D-sparse defect/inhomogeneity map can be obtained. Using such spatially structured heating combined with compressed sensing and computational imaging methods allows to significantly reduce the experimental complexity and to study larger test surfaces as compared to the one-dimensional approach reported earlier. T2 - Quantitative Infrared Thermography 2022 CY - Paris, France DA - 04.07.2022 KW - Thermography KW - Super resolution KW - NDT KW - inspection KW - Internal defects KW - DMD KW - DLP PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-577795 DO - https://doi.org/10.21611/qirt.2022.1005 SN - 2371-4085 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - QIRT Council AN - OPUS4-57779 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Rupprecht, C. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Nondestructive thermographic detection of internal defects using pixel-pattern based laser excitation and photothermal super resolution reconstruction N2 - In this work, we present a novel approach to photothermal super resolution based thermographic resolution of internal defects using two-dimensional pixel pattern-based active photothermal laser heating in conjunction with subsequent numerical reconstruction to achieve a high-resolution reconstruction of internal defect structures. With the proposed adoption of pixelated patterns generated using laser coupled high-power DLP projector technology the complexity for achieving true two-dimensional super resolution can be dramatically reduced taking a crucial step forward towards widespread practical viability. Furthermore, based on the latest developments in high-power DLP projectors, we present their first application for structured pulsed thermographic inspection of macroscopic metal samples. In addition, a forward solution to the underlying inverse problem is proposed along with an appropriate heuristic to find the regularization parameters necessary for the numerical inversion in a laboratory setting. This allows the generation of synthetic measurement data, opening the door for the application of machine learning based methods for future improvements towards full automation of the method. Finally, the proposed method is experimentally validated and shown to outperform several established conventional thermographic testing techniques while conservatively improving the required measurement times by a factor of 8 compared to currently available photothermal super resolution techniques. KW - Thermography KW - Super resolution KW - NDT KW - Inspection KW - Internal defects KW - DMD KW - DLP PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-570551 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30494-2 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 13 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Nature Research AN - OPUS4-57055 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Lecompagnon, Julien A1 - Ricci, M. A1 - Laureti, S. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias ED - Maldague, X. T1 - Practical study on the thermographic detectability of internal defects using temporally structured laser heating N2 - Modern laser systems have proven to be highly versatile heat sources for active thermographic testing. Compared to more traditional light sources, e.g. flash or halogen lamps, their output power can be easily modulated at high rates, allowing a wide variety of complex excitations to be realized. Although their total optical output power can be theoretically scaled to arbitrary values, the maximum output power is practically limited by many factors: the maximum power that the sample under test can absorb without altering the lighted surface itself, the trade-off between irradiance and inspected area, the cost of the laser system, etc. Furthermore, when working with spatial modulator systems, the output power must be limited to avoid damaging such devices. Nevertheless, to guarantee a sufficient amount of heating even for highly thermally conductive materials and/or deeply buried defects, the heating times can be extended, e.g., either by using step heating, long pulse thermography, or by lock-in thermography with a continuously modulated heating. However, for all these approaches, the ranging capabilities of the thermographic defect detection are reduced due to the limited frequency content of the excitation. To tackle this problem, i.e. to increase the excitation energy while preserving its frequency content, new approaches have been developed in the last two decades, among them the use of coded excitations in combination with pulse-compression, and the use of multiple lock-in analysis or a frequency modulated excitation signal. The challenges of such temporally structured heating techniques are manifold, for example, the DC component inherent in optical heating must be taken into account. In general, a wider frequency bandwidth or greater variability of the frequency components also means greater complexity for signal generation and data processing. In this paper, temporally structured excitation schemes with different degrees of complexity are compared on a high-power laser system. T2 - 17th International Conference on Quantitative InfraRed Thermography 2024 CY - Zagreb, Croatia DA - 01.07.2024 KW - Thermography KW - Laser KW - NDT KW - Coded excitation KW - Defect identification PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-653790 DO - https://doi.org/10.21611/qirt-2024-077 SN - 2371-4085 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - QIRT Council AN - OPUS4-65379 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Myrach, Philipp A1 - Jonietz, Florian A1 - Meinel, Dietmar A1 - Suwala, Hubert A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Calibration of thermographic spot weld testing with X-ray computed tomography N2 - The paper presents an attempt for the calibration of an active thermography method that is suitable for the non-destructive evaluation of spot welds. Nowadays, the quality of spot welds is commonly characterised by the application of random chisel tests, which are time consuming, expensive and destructive. Recently a non-destructive testing method by means of active thermography was proposed that relies on the fact that the mechanical connection formed by the spot weld also serves as a thermal bridge between the two steel sheets joined in the welding process. It is shown in this paper that this thermal bridge can be thermographically characterised by extracting a measure for the spot weld diameter and hence the quality of the spot weld. The determination of the absolute value of the diameter hereby relies on a calibration of the testing system, which is performed by means of X-ray computed tomography in this study. The experiments were carried out using different experimental approaches, namely transmission as well as reflection geometry wSetup in reflectionith laser illumination. A comprehensive evaluation of samples produced using different welding currents, hence different quality, was carried out in order to validate the thermographic results. KW - Thermography KW - Spot welds KW - Spot welding KW - Computed thomography KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/17686733.2017.1281554 SN - 1768-6733 SN - 2116-7176 VL - 14 IS - 1 SP - 122 EP - 131 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London AN - OPUS4-40180 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Myrach, Philipp A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Maierhofer, Christiane A1 - Kreutzbruck, Marc ED - Chimenti, D.E. ED - Bond, L.J. ED - Thompson, D.O. T1 - Influence of the acquisition parameters on the performance of laser-thermography for crack detection in metallic components N2 - We present a systematic study on the performance of laser-thermography for the detection of surface cracks in metallic components. Scanning a metallic surface with laser causes local heating that is mapped simultaneously by an IR-camera and allows identifying cracks with sub-µm openings. The detectability, however, depends on a number of acquisition parameters (e.g. scanning speed, laser power, IR-camera resolution) that typically relate on each other. Most importantly, the detection-sensitivity of surface breaking cracks is given by a particular combination for the acquisition parameter values. As a result, this sensitivity is adaptable within wide ranges allowing the detection of cracks with openings ranging from 200 to 0.1 µm at testing speeds of 100 to 0.05 cm²/s. By examining artificial as well as fatigue cracks, we demonstrate that the method can be even applied to shiny surfaces with no need of pretreatments, which makes it an entirely contactless, remote and automatable NDT technique. A comparison with magnetic particle testing shows that laser-thermography has the potential to become a strong competitor to conventional surface inspection methods in the future. T2 - 40th Annual review of progress in quantitative nondestructive evaluation CY - Baltimore, Maryland, USA DA - 21.07.2013 KW - Thermography KW - Laser-thermography KW - Crack detection PY - 2014 SN - 978-0-7354-1212-5 SN - 978-0-7354-1211-8 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4865018 SN - 0094-243X N1 - Serientitel: AIP conference proceedings – Series title: AIP conference proceedings VL - 1581 SP - 1624 EP - 1630 PB - AIP Publishing AN - OPUS4-31260 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -