Infrared Temperature Sensing of Mechanically Loaded Specimens: Thermal Analysis

Infrared temperature-sensing techniques have the major advantages of virtually no interference of the sensor with the sensed phenomenon and fast inherent response. On the other hand, infrared temperature sensing, as a superficial measurement technique, does not indicate the specimen’s core temperatures, and hence a complementary thermal analysis is required. A thermal analysis of surface temperature measurements of a mechanically loaded cylindrical specimen is presented. The specimen is modeled as an infinite cylinder, suddenly exposed to a uniformly distributed volumetric heat source. This heat source results from the conversion of mechanical energy into thermal energy. A closedform solution is obtained and numerical examples are given for metallic and polymeric specimens. The current analysis provides the upper boundaries for temperature differences between the core and the surface temperatures when compared with the actual problem of a finite specimen. It is shown that surface temperature measurement is a good indication of the core temperature for metallic specimens but may lead to some poor results in the case of polymeric specimens. It is found that the transient thermal response of the infinite cylinder to sudden heating behaves like a first-order process. In the case of cyclic loading, the typical time scale of loading is found to be at least two orders of magnitude shorter than the typical time scale of heat transfer. Hence, the specimen is affected by the average power of heat generation, not the instantaneous effect of heating within a single loading cycle. KEY WORDS—Infrared, temperature measurement, mechanical loading, time response, thermal analysis, mathematical model