Marine inspections with IR Camera 1

[creg41]

I am looking for any information to help me take the guess work out of the process to Inspect boat hulls etc. I am assuming the inspections are done at night and heat needs to be induced on the interior to show the demons?

 

[JKEngineer]

I assume you are talking about small boats, not ships. I am also assuming that you are looking for voids, delaminations, etc. in fiberglass, wood, or other similar materials, not in steel.

This has been and is being done through a variety of methods, I think. It will depend on the the choices made in the lists above... materials, type of problem sought. Front surface heating for transient IR can be used. Through heating for transient and steady state IR can be used.

While I have not done this specific examination, nor done the calculations for it, I would lean to using heat transfer analysis to predict what could be found under what regimes. Using FEA for heat transfer analysis is something I have been preaching for a few years. Samples of what I am talking about are on my website in the form of papers that I have presented and other examples.

You might also look to the NDT community for help. Either through NDT sites or through searches on NDT and IR. One probable hit would be Thermal Wave Imaging. A related area from which you could learn methods and approximate conditions would be aircraft inspection.

Let me know if I can be of assistance.

Jack M. Kleinfeld, P.E. Kleinfeld Technical Services, Inc.
Infrared Thermography, Finite Element Analysis, Process Engineering

http://www.KleinfeldTechnical.com

 

[IRJohn]

Again, there are some great papers published on this in the Proceedings of Thermosense, available either from the publisher (

http://www.spie.org)

or at our webstore (

http://www.snellinfrared.com)

as I was a co-editor of the volume.

The techniques used are quite straightforward, typically involving heating the hull from inside while it is out of the water. Simple, non-radiometric imaging systems (under $25K) can be used with excellent results. Interpreting the images is fairly simple IF you understand how the hull is constructed.

If I can be of further assistance, feel free to contact me directly.

Thermally yours,
John Snell
Snell Infrared
jsnell@snellinfrared.com

http://www.snellinfrared.com

http://www.thermal-solutions.org

 

[dgallagher]

Electrical, mechanical, propulsion and power generating systems often emit an abnormal heat signature before they fail. Structural problems in FRP, wood, and composite laminates are also visible - Infrared scanning allows marine surveyor’s to scan the structural integrity of a vessel, as well as electrical, propulsion and fuel systems, machinery, navigation and other on-board electronics before malfunctions occur.

http://www.reliabilitydirect.com/downloads/RDI_FLIR.pdf