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The Use of Infrared Thermography for Porosity Assessment of Intact Rock

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Abstract

Preliminary results on a new test for the indirect assessment of porosity through infrared thermography are presented. The study of the cooling behavior of rock samples in laboratory, through the analysis of thermograms, proved an innovative tool for the estimation of such an important property, which is one of the main features affecting the mechanical behavior of rocks. A detailed experimentation was performed on artificially heated volcanic rock samples characterized by different porosity values. The cooling trend was described both graphically and numerically, with the help of cooling curves and Cooling Rate Index. The latter, which proved strictly linked to porosity, was employed to find reliable equations for its indirect estimation. Simple and multiple regression analyses returned satisfactory outcomes, highlighting the great match between predicted and measured porosity values, thus confirming the goodness of the proposed model. This study brings a novelty in rock mechanics, laying the foundation for future researches aimed at refining achieved results for the validation of the model in a larger scale.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are pleased to thank Prof. Giovanni Barla for his expert support during the reviewing phase of this paper. An acknowledgment is also for the two anonymous reviewers, who helped us to improve the quality of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Largo San Marcellino 10, 80138, Naples, Italy

    S. Mineo

  2. Università degli Studi di Catania, Corso Italia 57, 95129, Catania, Italy

    G. Pappalardo

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  1. S. Mineo
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  2. G. Pappalardo
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Correspondence to G. Pappalardo.

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Mineo, S., Pappalardo, G. The Use of Infrared Thermography for Porosity Assessment of Intact Rock. Rock Mech Rock Eng 49, 3027–3039 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-016-0992-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-016-0992-2

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