Cedip Infrared Systems has launched its Altair Li system, which can provide images of stress in materials and structures under dynamic, transient or random loading conditions.
The Altair Li uses an IR camera, which provides thermal images of the area under investigation at fast frame rate. Using proprietary software these thermal images are converted into full field stress images, without any contact with the material surface. The full field stress images are produced in real time by using the thermoelastic effect, which states there is a linear relationship between the temperature changes induced by loading and the stress at the material surface.
When used to measure heat dissipation on a structure under dynamic loading (D-MODE) the Altair Li system can be used to rapidly determine the materials fatigue limit and provide information on the damage mechanism involved. When dealing with real structures, the relative motion of different parts can create artefact images. To eliminate these unwanted ghost images, Altair Li includes a software facility for motion compensation with sub-pixel accuracy.
