Characterizing the shape and heat production of open vertical cracks in burst vibrothermography experiments

Abstract We present a quantitative characterization of the heat flux distribution generated at open vertical cracks in burst vibrothermography experiments. We use a stabilized inversion algorithm that is able to retrieve both homogeneous and inhomogeneous fluxes from surface temperature data generated by open cracks. The performance of the algorithm is checked by inverting both synthetic data with added random noise and experimental data taken on samples containing calibrated heat sources. The results show that it is possible to characterize simultaneously the geometry and the absolute value of the heat flux distribution generated at the crack and therefore, the total emitted thermal power.