Regularized InfraRed Image Correlation Applied to Laser-Induced Thermal Shocks

Abstract

The thermomechanical behavior of a stainless steel sample undergoing thermal shocks is investigated with an infrared (IR) camera. The temperature and kinematic fields are simultaneously determined exploiting only IR frames. The thermal loading is prescribed with a laser, which gives rise to very high local digital level variations. This effect is addressed thanks to a regularized infrared image correlation (R-IRIC) technique, which accounts for brightness and contrast variations. The resulting digital level residuals are reduced down to less than 1% of the dynamic range, i.e. a level comparable with the noise magnitude, thereby validating the approach.