TY - CONF A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Ahmadi, Samim T1 - Lock-in Thermography using High-Power Laser Sources N2 - Optical lock-in thermography is a completely contactless and very sensitive NDT technique. As an optical source of energy, incandescent (i.e. halogen) lamps are most commonly used because they are relatively inexpensive and offer high irradiances at the test site. However, they are strongly restricted by their low modulation bandwidth with a maximum modulation frequency of only about 1 Hz. The use of high-power kilowatt-class laser sources, e.g. diode laser arrays, pushes this constraint beyond 100 Hz, see Fig.1. This allows for the exploration of the near-surface region of metals and layer systems with better and more accurate penetration depth and depth resolution. Moreover, these lasers are virtually free of any additional thermal radiation that could interfere with the “true” thermal response emitted from the heated sample. In turn, they can be easily used in a one-sided test configuration. Using the one-dimensional solution to the thermal heat diffusion equation together with the absorptance of the material which is illuminated with a harmonically modulated light source, we can calculate the temperature oscillation at the surface of a solid. As a second step, we calculate the corresponding oscillation of the total thermal emission using Stefan-Boltzmann law as a first order approximation and taking into account the emissivity of the material. Within this framework we can calculate the minimal irradiance of a light source necessary to provoke a measurable signal within a thermographic camera at a noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of 30 mK. In Fig. 2 this relationship is displayed for a wide spectrum of modulation frequencies and for a number of different light sources scaled to the same electrical input power and illumination area. Using this figure, it is now easily possible to analyze the range of materials to be tested using lock-in thermography, since only the materials (dotted lines) below the irradiance-vs-frequency curves (solid lines) are heated in excess of the camera’s NETD. This figure clearly shows that laser sources considerably increase the application range of lock-in thermography, since especially for metals with a high reflectance and high thermal diffusivity a high irradiance is vitally important to allow for lock-in texting. We present current activities with kilowatt-class high-power laser sources for advanced lock-in thermography and focus on the application of laser arrays that offer a very high irradiation strength over a large sample area beyond the mentioned advantages. T2 - Conference QIRT 2018 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 25.06.2018 KW - Thermography KW - Laser Thermography KW - Lock-in Thermography PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45447 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Krankenhagen, Rainer A1 - Maierhofer, Christiane T1 - Benefits & peculiarities of using highpower lasers for lock-in thermography N2 - Optical lock-in thermography is a completely contactless and very sensitive NDE technique. As an optical source of energy, incandescent (i.e. halogen) lamps are most commonly used because they are relatively inexpensive, do not need any work safety measures and offer high irradiances at the test site. However, they are strongly restricted by their low modulation bandwidth with a maximum modulation frequency of only about 1 Hz. The use of high-power kilowatt-class laser sources, e.g. diode laser arrays, pushes this constraint beyond 100 Hz. This allows for the exploration of the near-surface region of metals and layer systems with better and more accurate penetration depth and depth resolution. Moreover, these lasers are virtually free of any additional thermal radiation that could interfere with the “true” thermal response emitted from the heated sample. In turn, they can be easily used in a one-sided test configuration. Altogether using lasers considerably increases the application range of lock-in thermography, since especially for metals with a high reflectance and high thermal diffusivity a high irradiance is vitally important to allow for lock-in testing [1, 2]. We report on the mentioned benefits of using such high-power lasers and analyze the range of materials to be tested using lock-in thermography in dependence on the laser irradiance, the modulation frequency, the infrared camera as well as the optical and thermal material parameters. In this context, we also address a number of systematic errors caused by the use of ideal and non-ideal heat sources. For example, the measured phase angle in lock-in thermography depends on the irradiance and the modulation bandwidth of the source. This in turn has a decisive influence on the uncertainty in the quantification of, e.g. layer thicknesses. T2 - INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, 62nd Course, Progress in Photoacoustic & Photothermal Phenomena CY - Erice, Italy DA - 06.09.2018 KW - Thermography KW - Laser thermography KW - Lock-in thermography KW - NDT PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46282 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -