Aerospace Inspection Training | THERMOGRAPHY lau 122 i Date: Api 20 (CHAPTER 9: Factors Influencing E Material “The emissivity value of a material is eriical when performing thermal dition ‘measurements. In Fa, thermal NDT i almost impossible fr materials of low (less than (02) emissivity. Highly reflective, oxidised or metallic surfaces complicate mates gealy ‘As far as emissivity is concerned me surfaces In generat canbe said th ‘more problematic. 1s and non-metals have distinctly different types of ‘non-metal are easier to work with and metals are [Non-metals usually have fairly high emissivity. They usually hae litle vataton between specimens; one piecs of carbon fibre panel does not change much from another piece of carbon fibre panel, even if they have been manufactired by different organisations. Unlike metals, on-metals co not change thei emissivity much overtime (due to exiisation), ‘unless they get covered with dit or get worn, Pure, smooth un-oxdised metals have very low emissivity, down to 0.05 If the surface has ‘been polished the emissivity may be lower sl, As zero emissivity is approached infinite ifticult in measuring tempereture is also approached Surfuce Structure ‘The rougher the surface, the higher the emissivity will be, Polished, shiny and smooth surfaces have low enissivty whereas blasted; sanded, seratched surfaces have higher ‘emissivity In addition to changing the material surface, oxidation or earosion can make the surface rougher, theeby increasing its emissivity ‘We can visually determine how well we think asurfce can reflect and absorb ft looks probably has@ higher emissivity, IFt looks smooth it probably has a lower ‘emissivity. That sounds easy, but i is not— itis a matter of experience toa large degre. ‘There is also a common misunderstanding between visual colour and emissivity. Visual ges the way a surface reflects and absorbs visible igh. The IR cameras do not light atalland are therefore completely unbalanced by colour ‘The source ofthe misunderstanding is probably the way that colour may affect he absorption of light. The solar spectrum has a much stronger radiation power in the visual ‘ange than in any otter part ofthe spectrum, This means that ifa certain colour has an ability to absorb more Hight than anyother colour, it will become hote in sunlight. Hence, ‘black ear wll get hoterin the sun than a yellow cat, for example. Consequently it wll rate more in the infrared and would look hater in an TR eamera,Aerospace Inspection Training | THERMOGRAPHY CHAPTER 9: Factors Inflvenc 5 6 7 6 9 0 11 12 ‘Wavelongth (ym) ‘A simple graph ilustrates how emissivity and the absorp of light is affected by surace coatings Page ToT3 Geometry 3.1 Geomeiry means the physical shape ofthe target objec. Ist flat or spherical? Is it distorted? Does it have holes cr cavities? Cavities, holes and angles will ll start o resemble the way a blackbody simulator is designed. Maliple reflections between surfaces will increase absorption, and thereby emissivity (a). Redltion ‘Multiple reflections wil inerease absorption (and emissivity) 3.1.1 Geometry and surface structure are to some extent relate. Surface stueture can be ‘considered a geometry phenomenon on a microscopic seale. But it is not the same thing because the geometry canbe changed without changing the surface structure and vice versa, 3.12 Inthe image above, a solid metal block is heated using an eon, The hole ‘varying depth, deepest onthe left and shallowest on the right. PagesotT uted: Api 2012THERMOGRAPHY CHAPTER 9: Factors Influencing Emissivity Aerospace Inspection Training 3.13 Once a steady state bas been achieved andthe block is uniformly heated, it canbe seen from the two images above that the hole to the right (shallows) and the hole othe left (deepest) show a distinc! temyerature difference 3.14 The left hole looks tote than the right hole because its emissivity is greater. This is ‘due to geometry because al other factors ae the same. = —— Faget Dated: Api 2012Aerospace Inspection Training | THERMOGRAPHY (CHAPTER 9: Factors Influencing Emiss 4. Angle 4.4. ‘The way that angle facts emissivity wll vary somewhat between different types of surface, butt normally doesnot make too much difference 4.141. Pespendicularo your target, a O° angle, you will fleet yourself! This is not really an ‘emissivity effect butit does warrant mentioning in this context. If you get eose tothe 90° angle, emissivity wil start 0 drop, 5. Wavelength 5.1 Anemissivity meastrement made with one IR camera may not be the same as one made ‘with another camera, That is because they both aperate within different wavelength bands snd the emissivity nay be different Different detector types forthe sane wavelength band could also have a slihtly different response and show differences inthe way a surface behaves 5.1.1 Atypical case is PVC tape. Black tape alos always has an emisivty value of 0.95 or close to that figure, uo matter what eamera you use. However, with a cooled focal plane array camera tat opzrates inthe short wavelengih band some black electrical tapes are thermally transparent (transmissive)! Some coloured elctial tapes are usually very close to the same emissviy as black tape in long wave cameras. In short wave, the coloured tapes ‘may be transparent and the black wil be opaque 5.1.2 Test the PVC tapes before you use them! Check them by putting them in font of «hot Source, adjust your camera and se if you ean “see” through them at all. If you can “se” through the tape, then it is useless for any measurement work (se photograph below), 5.1.3. Remember, it is not he colour as such; itis the material that changes emissivity! caja 3 Dist = 1.0 TreflAerospace Inspection Training | THERMOGRAPHY (CHAPTER 9: Factors 6 Temperature 6.11 The target temperature itself can have an effect onthe emissivity, However, itis unusual nd the influence i relatively small in most cass. 6.1.1 ‘The emissivity of metals ean inctease at very high temperatures. A good example is brake testing, where the temperature ofa brake dise in operation is required Temperatures may go from ambient air temperature to 1000°C, and this would change the emissivity greatly. Asa general rule, emissivity suddenly increases when temperature i lose toa phase shifle. solid to liquid 6.1.2. One point to keepin mind is hat if your emmisivty changes, itis mos likely to increase. So ityou start with a target with a high emissivity ftom the beginning, it wil not have avery big potential to change —it can't go higher than 1.0! 6.1.3. For general aerospace applications, the temperature will nt affect emissivity a all, a only ‘temperature changes above afew hundsed Kelvin tend o affect the emissivity. Page oT‘THERMOGRAPHY (CHAPTER 9: Factors Influencing Ei 7. Reflected Apparent Temperature 7.1 Reflected apparent empersture isthe apparent temperature of objets that results in radiation that is reflected by the target() and into the infrared eamera, 7.1.1 Some cameras use tie name T-ambient or Taxi. This is misleading 2s you may think that it {is measuring the airtemperatre around the target object, around the camera, or indeed both isnot! 74.2 The name that FLIR use is Tn an thats what we wil be wsing here, 7.13 The flected apparcat temperature has thee important criteria + Its apparent temperature; which means that it i a radiation quantity + Ireomes from objets + Theseflectian source has a suitable angle of incidence on the target to become pat ‘ofthe exitan! radiation toward the exer 7.14 Every measurement, wheter on target in the field or an emissivity sample inthe ‘workshop, begins wih a measurement of reflected apparent temperature 7.15 By setting emissivity to 1.0 ad distance to 0, no compensation is catied out by the camera tnd the apparent temperature ofthe reflection source maybe determined, 7.1.6 Air temperature, hunidty and reflected apparent temperature settings may be ignored on the ‘camera since the device has been tld that the distance is ero. The same goes for Tres The ‘emissivity hasbeen et to 1.0. Atte sume time, this means that the reflectivity i OG emissivity is 1.0, then al radiation is absorbed, so nothing ean be reflected). It makes no iference to what ie reflected apparent temperatute is seo since twill be multiplied by © {nthe calculation tht the camera makes anyway. 7.1.7 Using a spot mete, isotherm or area average tool, read the reflected appatent temperature of the target Avoid spat reflections! 7.1.8. Set the result into the camera settings and it is read to start measuring. 7.9 Iincomect Toa settings are put into the eames temperature reading. rors will appear when taking rue 74.10 For opaque targets, the IR camera receives both emitted and reflected IR energy from the target. With knowledge of target emissivity and reflected apparent temperature, the eamera ‘can caleulate the true target temperature 1 does this by taking the reflected apparent temperature and wsirg it to calculate the reflected energy. I surat tis from the total ‘energy measured, (get the emitted energy. Thea it divides the result by the emissivity to ‘et the blackbody equivalent energy and finds the equivalent target temperature in the ie Page TOT Dated: Api 2012Aerospace Inspection Training | THERMOGRAPHY (CHAPTER 8: Factors Influencing Bi calibration lookup tables stored i the IR camera, That isthe temperature displayed on your IReamera 7.4.11 Ihe correct emissivity and reflected apparent temperature values are put into the camera, correct reading for target temperature within the calibration accuracy ofthe IR camera will be obtained. I the coect values are not entered, the erors can range fiom small to very Tange depending on emissivity and reflected apparent temperature values. 7.1.12 For high emissivity and indoor targets, reflected apparent temperature has less effect than for medium emissivty targets outdoors where fra clea, dry Sky the reflected apparent temperature can be 60°F. Then the effect will be are. mo Tage of Dat: Api 2012Aerospace Inspection Training | THERMOGRAPAY 81 aut B12 B13 Tee CHAPTER 9: Factors Influencing Emissivity Solutions to emissivity problems Blackpainting ‘igh emissivity pant (0.9 to 0.98) s applied tothe target surface. This special paint has a ‘uniform emissivity nd low reflectivity Inthe infrared spectrum. This method i particularly suitable when inspecting metalic surfaces. CCasped Palms Suitable for small pats with an unknown emissivity. Te part or component under testis held the hands unl skin temperature is achieved, The hands are opened with the part held and an infrared image is captured. Bearing in mind thatthe skin hasan emissivity of 098, the temperature ofthe component i compared to that ofthe skin and the difference may be used to assess the emissivity ofthe pat Cavity minor "The increase of apparent temperature ofthe component through the summation of multiple refletions using a hemisphere eaity miror erates blackbody concitions, This is generally ‘sed in a laboratory envionment “Thoumal transfer imaging ‘The principle of thea transfer imaging is to bring a high-emissivity material into contact ith the test specimen. Te high-emissvity material picks up the temperature distebution of the low-emissvity material. This will make the thermal inspection possible by thermally observing the high-emissvity material, This echnigue ie suitable for low-temperature inspections and components with at surfaces, Pose 9019 Dated: Api 2012