Review of Active IR Thermography for Detection and Characterization of Defects in Reinforced Concrete

Active thermography methods enable structural investigations of reinforced concrete elements taking into account many different testing problems. The goal of this review is to provide an overview on the state-of-the-art regarding the use of active infrared thermography (IRT) for detection and characterization of defects in reinforced concrete. The paper will provide the physical background, equipment being used, as well as post-processing methods that are used to analyse sequences of thermograms. This work also presents the fields of applicability of IRT with a focus on the aspects related to reinforced concrete structures, as well as the advantages, limitations and potential sources of errors of IRT employment. Additionally previous non-destructive testing (NDT) studies that employed thermography techniques with natural excitation are briefly presented. A review of the future trends of thermal imaging are also included in this work. It can be concluded that while IRT is a useful tool for the characterisation of defects in the building sector, there is great prospect for the development of more advanced, effective and accurate approaches that will employ a combination of thermography approaches.