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Automatic detection of moistures in different construction materials from thermographic images

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Abstract

Moisture is a pathology that damages all type of construction materials, from materials of building envelopes to materials of bridges. Its presence can negatively affect the users’ conditions of indoor comfort. Furthermore, heating and cooling energy demand can be increased by the presence of moist materials. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a common technique in the scientific field to detect moisture areas, because of its non-destructive, non-contact nature. In addition, IRT allows an earlier moisture detection compared to the analysis using visible images. In order to optimize thermographic inspections, this paper presents one of the first methodologies for the automatic detection of moisture areas affecting the surface of construction materials. The methodology is based on the application of visible image processing techniques adapted to thermographic images through the consideration of an image conversion format, a thermal criterion and a thermal and a geometric filter. The precision, recall and F-score parameters obtained are around 83.5%, 73.5% and 72.5%, respectively, considering the false positives/negatives through a series of 12 tests made in different construction materials and ambient conditions, comparing the preliminary results with existing methodologies.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Gobierno de España) for the financial support given through programs for human resources (FPU16/03950) and TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R (AEI/FEDER, UE). Special thanks to the Cátedra Iberdrola VIII Centenario—University of Salamanca, and European Commission for the funding given through the program H2020-FTIPilot-2015-1 to the proposal 720661—ENGINENCY. S. Sfarra wants to thank the restorer who assisted him to construct the mosaic sample and realize the wooden samples. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 769255. This document reflects only the author’s view, and the Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Geotechnologies Research Group, Mining and Energy Engineering School, University of Vigo, Rúa Maxwell s/n, 36310, Vigo, Spain

    I. Garrido & P. Arias

  2. Department of Cartographic and Terrain Engineering, EPS Ávila, University of Salamanca, Calle Hornos Caleros 50, 05003, Ávila, Spain

    S. Lagüela

  3. Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics (DIIIE), University of L’Aquila, Piazzale E. Pontieri 1, Monteluco di Roio, 67100, L’Aquila, AQ, Italy

    S. Sfarra

  4. Photonics Engineering Group, CIBER-BBN and IDIVAL, University of Cantabria, Av. De Los Castros s/n, 39005, Santander, Cantabria, Spain

    F. J. Madruga

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Garrido, I., Lagüela, S., Sfarra, S. et al. Automatic detection of moistures in different construction materials from thermographic images. J Therm Anal Calorim 138, 1649–1668 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-019-08264-y

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