Self-reference lock-in thermography for detecting defects in metal bridge spans

Introduction. Incipient fatigue damage in the metal superstructures of bridges creates certain threats to the safety of operation. Various methods of non-destructive testing are used for their timely detection and diagnosis. A modern and popular on-the-day solution is the method of infrared (IR) thermography. Due to the specifics of the operation of IR cameras, additional processing of recordings received from these cameras is required to obtain an accurate result. This work aims at presenting a method for processing thermofilms and describing the possibilities of its application under real conditions.Materials and Methods. A method for processing thermographic films was described. It provided detecting temperature anomalies using only information from the camera. The results of its application on the elements of existing metal bridge spans are presented.Results. It is shown that there are temperature anomalies for existing defects. This means that the defects continue to develop, which was confirmed by subsequent observations of their condition. In addition, a case of temperature anomaly in the defect-free external region was identified. This might be a sign of an incipient defect that could not be diagnosed by other methods. If the presence of this defect is confirmed during repeated examinations, it will be possible to diagnose hidden defects that have not yet come to the surface, and/or detect potentially collapsing places.Discussion and Conclusions. The IR thermography performance as a method of non-contact non-destructive testing is shown, as well as its operability on real objects under random load.