Detection of insulation flaws and thermal bridges in insulated truck box panels

Abstract

This paper focuses on the detection of defects and thermal bridges in insulated truck box panels, utilising infrared thermography. Unlike the traditional way in which passive thermography is applied, this research uses both heating and cooling methods in active thermography configurations. Lamp heating is used as the hot external stimulation, while a compressed air jet is applied as the cold external stimulation. A thermal camera captures the whole process. In addition, numerical simulations under COMSOL^® platform are also conducted. Experimental and simulation results for two situations are compared and discussed.

Keywords:

• Infrared thermography
• liquid nitrogen cooling
• comsol
• truck panel
• thermal bridge

Acknowledgements

We are also thankful to our collaborative institute CNR-ITC Padova which provided expertise that greatly helped in this research.

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the governments of Italy and Quebec (Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie) through the Joint Subcommittee Québec-Italy [project number 08.0203/QU13MO3]. It was also supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); Canada Research Chairs [grant number 220244].