An overview of corrosion defect characterization using active infrared thermography

Corrosion is considered a destructive phenomenon that affects almost all metals. There is a variety of corrosion monitoring and measurement techniques being deployed across industries. However, very few techniques are ideally characterised with non-contact, non-intrusive, on-line and direct features for measuring the accurate corrosion rate or actual metal loss. Infrared Thermography (IRT) allows the recording of electromagnetic waves emitted from objects by using an infrared imaging system, such as an infrared camera. IRT is an online method of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) meaning the delays in receiving results from a laboratory experienced in many NDT techniques can be eliminated. It is non-intrusive which means no process disruption and downtime will be imposed to the production line. It is also a non-contact method which mitigates the hazard occurrence and need for highly experienced personnel. The work presented here constitutes an overview on the applications of infrared thermography for the detection and characterisation of general metal loss in metallic materials. It reviews the fundamentals and represents the advances of thermography applications specifically in metal loss/thickness variation measurement along the recent literature.