Abstract
Thermal wave imaging of defects in opaque solids is carried out by focusing the periodically modulated intensity of a heat source (conventionally a laser, electron beam, or ion beam) at the surface of the solid. Solution of the heat equation shows that the ac temperature in the solid is wave-like (thermal waves), and critically damped. These waves can be used to probe the thermal properties of the subsurface of the solid, and their reflections from discontinuities in thermal impedance can be used to image subsurface defects such as inclusions, voids, cracks, and delaminations. Various techniques have been developed to detect the resulting ac temperature variations at the sample surface, including photoacoustic (gas-cell) detection, thermoacoustic (piezoelectric transducer) detection, optical probe beams, and ac infrared detection. Thermal wave imaging is particularly useful to probe subsurfaces from depths of about 1 micron to 300 microns, with a maximum depth of about 2 mm. The effective depth is about one thermal diffusion length, and can be varied systematically by varying the heat source modulation frequency.
Examples will be given of thermal wave images of ceramics and metals, as well as an image of a turbine blade. These images were taken with laser beam excitation and gas cell or optical probe beam detection. An additional “ion-acoustic” image of implanted areas in a single crystal slab of zirconia will be presented as an example of the use of ion beam excitation of thermal waves.
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Rose, D.N. et al. (1985). Thermal Wave Imaging of Defects in Opaque Solids. In: Snyder, R.L., Condrate, R.A., Johnson, P.F. (eds) Advances in Materials Characterization II. Materials Science Research, vol 19. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9439-0_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9439-0_18
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