Tuesday  |  Salon 7  |  10:00 AM–10:20 AM

#16369, An Exploration of Extreme Configurations of Infrared Imaging Systems with Capabilities Well Suited for Experimental Mechanics

Advancements in broadband high-speed infrared imaging have continuously shifted the limiting specifications which dictate what is possible when conducting optical thermal analysis of common experimental mechanics research workflows. This work explores configurations which have pushed the boundaries of what is possible across Telops’ high speed broadband infrared system catalog, and explores the absolute utility of possible system configurations with regard to three primary categories, temporal resolution, spatial resolution, and ease of use.
Experiments highlighted include both Split Hopkinson Bar and Tensile Strength tests which primarily feature data collected by Telops’ M1k, M2k, and M3k systems. While these systems traditionally manage 1khz-3khz framerates in full window mode, the experiments selected have used sub windowing to achieve framerates >65,000hz. This allows for detailed thermal analysis on the scale of a few microseconds and can successfully unlock the ability of the user to visualize critical dynamic events (1). In utilizing sub window mode to achieve such speeds, the necessary tradeoff is of course less pixels collecting information. Because of this, manipulation of the field of view of the system is often necessary, and therefore an analysis of possible lens and microscope configurations with varied sub window size has been completed and the implications for the limits of spatial resolution in conjunction with high framerates are thereby identified. Additionally, due to the data throughput required to capture high speed imagery, one final factor which will be addressed are several newly implemented features which improve onboard buffering speed and reliability, and constitute a significant ease of use improvement.
This study finds that high speed infrared imaging systems possess the framerates necessary to achieve quality results when applied in the extreme configurations necessary to analyze dynamic environments. Telops’ highspeed broadband systems are well suited for these conditions, are incredibly flexible in configuration, and continue to undergo consistent improvements well suited for ultra-high-speed thermal measurements such as those common in experimental mechanics.

Joseph Carrock   Telops Inc.
Wes Autran   Telops Inc.