TY - CONF A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Kreutzbruck, M. A1 - Studemund, T. A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Thermal wave interference with high-power VCSEL arrays for locating vertically oriented subsurface defects N2 - Among the photothermal methods, full-field thermal imaging is used to characterize materials, to determine thicknesses of layers, or to find inhomogeneities such as voids or cracks. The use of classical light sources such as flash lamps (impulse heating) or halogen lamps (modulated heating) led to a variety of nondestructive testing methods, in particular, lock-in and flash-thermography. In vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), laser light is emitted perpendicularly to the surface with a symmetrical beam profile. Due to the vertical structure, they can be arranged in large arrays of many thousands of individual lasers, which allows power scaling into the kilowatt range. Recently, a high-power yet very compact version of such a VCSEL-array became available that offers both the fast timing behavior of a laser as well as the large illumination area of a lamp. Moreover, it allows a spatial and temporal control of the heating because individual parts of the array can be controlled arbitrarily in frequency, amplitude, and phase. In conjunction with a fast infrared camera, such structured heating opens up a field of novel thermal imaging and testing methods. As a first demonstration of this approach, we chose a testing problem very challenging to conventional thermal infrared testing: The detection of very thin subsurface defects perpendicularly oriented to the surface of metallic samples. First, we generate destructively interfering thermal wave fields, which are then affected by the presence of defects within their reach. It turned out that this technique allows highly sensitive detection of subsurface defects down to depths in excess of the usual thermographic rule of thumb, with no need for a reference or surface preparation. T2 - 44TH ANNUAL REVIEW OF PROGRESS IN QUANTITATIVE NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION CY - Provo, Utah DA - 16.07.2017 KW - Laser applications KW - Thermography KW - VCSEL KW - Subsurface defects PY - 2018 SN - 978-0-7354-1644-4 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5031547 SN - 0094-243X VL - 1949 SP - UNSP 060001, 1 EP - 8 AN - OPUS4-45171 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Burgholzer, P. A1 - Mayr, G. T1 - Thermography using High-Power Laser Arrays N2 - Due to their high irradiance and wide modulation bandwidth, high-power lasers open up a wide field of application. For example, the classical methods of pulse and lock-in thermography can be realized in high quality. In addition, structured heating is also possible by using arrays of such lasers. This makes it possible to implement new thermographic methods, such as interference-based detection of cracks or super resolution. T2 - Fifth NDTonAIR Training Event: Thermography Workshop CY - Linz, Austria DA - 13.02.2019 KW - Thermography KW - Laser Thermography KW - Super Resolution KW - Thermal Waves KW - NDT PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47491 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Karagianni, Christina A1 - Burgholzer, P. A1 - Mayr, G. A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Caire, G. T1 - A comparison of different techniques for photothermal super resolution image reconstruction N2 - The separation of two closely located 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 an improved reconstruction of closely located defects. This new technique has also been studied using 1D laser arrays in active thermography. The post-processing can be roughly described by two steps: 1. Finding a sparse basis representation using a reconstruction algorithm such as the Fourier transform, 2. Application of an iterative joint sparsity (IJOSP) method to the firstly reconstructed data. For this reason, different methods in post-processing can be compared using the same measured data set. The focus in this work was the variation of reconstruction algorithms in step 1 and its influence on the results from step 2. More precise, the measured thermal waves can be transformed to virtual (ultrasound) waves that can be processed by applying ultrasound reconstruction algorithms and finally the super resolution algorithm. Otherwise, it is also possible to make use of a Fourier transform with a subsequent super resolution routine. These super resolution thermographic image reconstruction techniques in post-processing are discussed and evaluated regarding performance, accuracy and repeatability. T2 - 20-th International Conference on Photoacoustic and Photothermal Phenomena CY - Moscow, Russia DA - 07.07.2019 KW - Super resolution KW - Virtual wave KW - Laser thermography KW - 1d laser KW - Joint sparsity KW - Laser array KW - VCSEL array KW - High-power laser KW - Fourier transform KW - Dimension reduction PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-48592 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Hirsch, Philipp Daniel A1 - Karagianni, Christina A1 - Burgholzer, P. A1 - Mayr, G. A1 - Jung, P. A1 - Caire, G. 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 - 46th Annual Review of Profress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation CY - Portland, OR, USA DA - 14.07.2019 KW - Super resolution KW - Virtual wave KW - Laser thermography KW - 1d laser KW - Joint sparsity KW - Laser array KW - VCSEL array KW - High-power laser PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-48591 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Thermal wave field engineering using structured 1D laser illumination N2 - Thermal waves are solutions of the heat diffusion equation for periodic boundary conditions and can be seen analogously to strongly damped waves. Although the underlying differential equation differs from the wave equation, the essential property for analogy between both equations is linearity such that superposition applies. This linearity is maintained even after a linear transformation, such as the Fourier transform from time to frequency domain. It follows that the temporal superposition principle is already used in active thermography, e.g. in pulsed thermography, as a superposition of many individual frequencies. However, the systematic spatial superposition has not yet been fully exploited, mainly due to a lack of suitable energy sources. As a first step, we are investigating how thermal wave fields of arbitrary space-time structures can be engineered using structured laser illumination. The proof of principle was shown using a laser coupled projector. Unfortunately, the available optical output power was limited due to the thermal stress limit of the device. That is why we are working towards a more sophisticated moving 1D array of high-power diode lasers. We characterized the novel light source and believe that apart from the benefit of spatial and temporal illumination it can combine the temporal regimes of impulse and lock-in thermography. In a second step, we investigate moving and oscillating line sources with different line shapes. We use a Green’s Function ansatz to analytically model the thermal wave propagation of structured 1D laser illumination in isotropic materials. Furthermore, we show some methods how they can be implemented. With this technique, we were able to accelerate our detection method firstly presented in for vertical narrow defects by factor three. Generally, we believe that this technique opens up similar opportunities than in other NDE methods. High-resolution ultrasound, for example, is also based on the superposition of single emitters and a recent concept suggests an option to deal with the diffusion wave character of the thermal waves. T2 - 62. International School of Quantum Electronics die Tagung “Progress in Photoacoustic & Photothermal Phenomena” CY - Erice, Italy DA - 06.09.2018 KW - Thermal wave KW - Thermal wave field KW - Thermal engineering KW - Structured laser illumination KW - 1d laser KW - Laser array KW - Laser thermography PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46193 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Thiel, Erik A1 - Ahmadi, Samim A1 - Ziegler, Mathias T1 - Two-dimensional interference of photothermally generated moving thermal waves N2 - Structured illumination using high-power diode lasers generates a two-dimensional interference of thermal waves. In addition, the sources and the sample are moving relative to each other. Using different configurations, we investigate the validity of the temporal and spatial superposition principle of the heat diffusion equation for these cases both experimentally and by numerical-analytical modelling. Furthermore, we investigate the potential of this approach for non-destructive testing. T2 - 14th Quantitative Infrared Thermography Conference CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 24.05.2018 KW - Thermography KW - Thermal Wave KW - VCSEL KW - Laser KW - Thermal diffusion PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-45621 LA - eng 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 - 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 - Puthiyaveettil, N. A1 - Thomas K, R. A1 - Unnikrishnakurup, S. A1 - Myrach, Philipp A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Balasubramaniam, K. T1 - Laser line scanning thermography for surface breaking crack detection modeling and experimental study N2 - Crack detection in metallic samples at high surface temperature, hostile and hazardous environments, etc. is challenging situation in any manufacturing industries. Most of the present NDE methods are suitable only for lower surface temperatures, especially room temperature. In this situation, we need a fast and non-contact NDT method which can be applied even in high sample surface temperature. Laser thermography is one of the techniques having a high potential in non-contact inspection. As a preliminary investigation, in this article, we have studied the potentiality of laser line thermography in crack detection at room temperature. In laser line thermography, a continuous wave (CW) laser is used to generate a laser line, which in turn is used to scan the metal surface. The heat distribution over the sample surface is recorded by an infrared thermal (IR) camera. Two different approaches are reported in this work. Firstly, a stationary laser line source and its interaction with cracks; secondly, moving laser line source scanning over a surface with crack. When the distance between crack centre to laser line centre increases, crack detectability will decrease; and when laser power increases, crack detectability will increase. A dedicated image processing algorithm was developed to improve the detectability of the cracks. To understand the heat transfer phenomenon, a simplified 3D model for laser thermography was developed for the heat distribution during laser heating and was validated with experimental results. Defects were incorporated as a thermally thin resistive layer (TTRL) in numerical modeling, and the effect of TTRL in heat conduction is compared with experimental results. KW - Thermography KW - Laser Thermography KW - Cracks KW - FEM KW - NDT PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infrared.2019.103141 VL - 104 SP - 103141 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-49941 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Puthiyaveettil, N. A1 - Thomas, K. R. A1 - Myrach, Philipp A1 - Ziegler, Mathias A1 - Rajagopal, P. A1 - Balasubramaniamam, K. T1 - Defect detection in steel bars up to 600 °C using laser line thermography N2 - Crack detection in steel bars at high surface temperatures is a critical problem in any manufacturing industry. Surface breaking cracks are the major problems during the billet casting. Many NDT techniques are proven its capability in crack detection at room temperature. Here, we are demonstrating the possibility of exposure of cracks using laser line thermography at higher surface temperatures (up to 600 °C). A continuous-wave (CW) laser is used to excite the sample kept at higher surface temperatures. The temperature distribution over the sample due to the laser line scanning is captured using a temperature calibrated infrared (IR) thermal camera. The response of the sample temperature in crack detection is investigated using a validated FE model. The impact of the oxide layer in crack detection is investigated by using two types of samples; one without any oxide layer and the second is with the oxide layer. The influence of laser power in the detection of defects at high temperatures is studied. 3D numerical models were developed for the cases; when the sample is with oxide layer and without any oxide layer for a better understanding of physics. The surface temperature rise due to laser heating is higher for the scaled sample compared to the no-scale sample. The presence of the oxide layer above the parent metal will reduce the reflectivity of the surface. Lower reflectivity will lead to increased absorption of incident energy so that the surface temperature rise will be higher than the surface with no scale. Thermal contrast linearly depends on laser power, which means higher laser power will increase the defect detectability even at a higher surface temperature. KW - Laser thermography KW - High temperature KW - Modeling KW - Surface cracks KW - Non-destructive testing PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infrared.2020.103565 SN - 1350-4495 VL - 111 SP - 103565 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-51573 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -