An improved infrared image post-processing method for metals and composites

Post-processing of the infrared thermography image is crucial for nondestructive testing, which will reduce noise and disturbance considerably. In this work, an improved image post-processing method based on the temperature ratio is proposed, namely the Thermal Image Division (TID) method. To validate this method, we carried out experiments on different materials such as composite CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced polymer) plates, 304 stainless steel plates and aluminum alloy samples. The results show the proposed method is pretty useful, significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the image by comparing with other post-processing methods. It’s not only beneficial for identifying the edge of the defect, but also facilitates the detection of smaller defects with deeper depth. The signal-to-noise ratio is improved by nearly 117.5 % from practice. The TID method was applied to the defect size detection of pulse thermography and ultrasonic thermography. The results indicate TID method has good robustness, significantly reduces the error of defect size quantification.