The aim of this work is to verify the presence of deformation in the metal specimen from the material AISI 316L by means of lock-in thermography. The specimen was cyclically loaded by the three-point bending in the fatigue testing machine. A response of the specimen to such excitation can be detected in the infrared spectrum and to determine temperature changes during a loading cycle. By means of the lock-in method, an increased signal to noise ratio (radiation energy detected by an infrared camera) was achieved. Besides, the temperature changes were determined on the basis of amplitudes of radiant energy changes detected by the camera. The temperature change (all radiant energy) corresponds with the first invariant of the tensor of deformation and, after a calculation and regarding the material parameters, also the invariant of the stress tensor. The proportionality between the signal from the camera and the first deformation invariant is achieved if the specimen load is an adiabatic event. This process is achieved by choosing a sufficiently high load frequency. In case of a presence origin of plastic deformations, there takes place only part of radiant energy. When we accept the hypothesis of a presence of just elastic deformations and plastic deformation is also present in the monitored process, then the evaluated thermograms based on the assumption of the presence of elastic deformation present anomalies in a distribution of the determined tensor invariant of deformations. These anomalies are caused by a presence of plastic deformations. Based on the anomalies, plastic deformation can be detected and subsequently analyzed. For the tested specimen and the applied load, the calculation of stress tensor was performed. It confirmed a congruence of results obtained by the analysis of the physical process in the infrared spectrum of the mid-wave infrared camera.
Keywords: experimental measurement; infrared; lock-in; mechanical load; thermoelastic.