ELSEVIER Energy and Buildings 29 (1998) l-9

Quantitative infrared thermography in buildings

E. Grinzato a,*, V. Vavilov b, T. Kauppinen ’
a CNR-ITEF, Corso Stati Uniti, 4, 35127-Padova, Italy
b Tomsk Polytechnic Vniversiry, Savinykh, 3, 63402%Torn& Russian Federation
’ Vrr Building Technology, P.O. Box 18021, FIN-90571, Oulu, Finland

Received 16 May 1997; received in revised form 10 June 1997; accepted 10 June 1997

Abstract

A methodology, based on the solution of the inverse heat transfer problem, for the detection and evaluation of flaws in buildings is discussed.
The temperature varying in space and time is recorded by a thermographic equipment and each point belonging to the inspected area is
analysed quantitatively. Data are processed to give a map of defects of the wall, based on the most suitable local thermal parameter. The
thermal-physical aspects of different defects are studied, along with the description of simplified models to interpret surface temperature data.
The building envelope is examined mainly in transient thermal regime. Testing procedures using periodic or pulse heating of the surface are
described. The theoretical analysis is used to predict temperature evolution and properly design the test. A detectability comparison among
different procedures is performed. Experimental results are reported for insulation deficiencies and thermal bridges evaluation, air leakage
detection and moisture content mapping. 0 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Building diagnosis; IR thermography; Insulation voids; Thermal bridges; Moisture mapping

1. Introduction A new generation of IR imaging instruments is entering

For a long time, infrared (IR) thermography has been a
well known technique in mapping building envelopes defects
as thermal bridges, air leaks or abnormally moist spots [l-
41. Along with the use of IR thermography for the inspection
of electrical installations, building area is rather well docu-
mented [ 5-101. A new impetus to broaden IR thermography
building applications is strongly supported by an increasing
demand for low energy consumption and predictive mainte-
nance of constructions.
Thermography is commonly considered as a qualitative
method which is used primarily to indicate variations in ther-
mal resistance on a wall or roof. Most of the literature indi-
cates that if the thermal resistance or air tightness of a building
are to be quantified, different investigations should be carried
out. The possibility to complement the huge amount of tem-
perature measurements with some other data is an alternative
approach ( [ 31, p. 92). Until today, only a few works dealing
with the quantitative evaluation of the heat flux across the
building envelope, starting from thermographic data, have
been published [ 1l-131.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: + 39 49 8295722; fax:
e-mail: ermanno@itef.pd.cnr.it
the market converting outdoor surveys into an useful and
exciting enterprise. Finally, recent moves of the American
Society for Non-destructive Testing ( ASNT) and other Eur-
opean standardisation bodies, towards certification of IR ther-
mographers complete, by our opinion, modern fast-changing
IR thermography scene. However, we believe that the
enhanced resolution, the automatic recording and processing
capability of novel IR equipment have not been fully
exploited. A reason for this is the shortage of suitable proc-
essing algorithms to interpret IR images. It is a matter of fact
that thermographic survey of buildings is mainly performed
considering the objects working in thermal steady-state. In
this assumption, the used accept-reject criteria involves only
the amplitudes comparison on the surface temperature pat-
terns. Operator’s experience is crucial in the decision-making
process, and dedicated software to process thermograms are
still of a little use, until today.
To pass to a more advanced level, the quantitative approach
leads to solve the inverse heat conduction problems in tran-
sient regime. In such a way, an objective evaluation of the
defect importance could be achieved in a short time. A higher
understanding of experimental data requires complementing
+ 39 49 8295728; surface temperature patterns with its time evolution. In fact,
this is a common practice in thermal non-destructive evalu-

0378-7788/98/$ - see front matter 0 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PIISO378-7788(97)00039-X
2 E. Grinzoto et al. /Energy
ation (TNDE) of materials [ 141. Generally speaking, the
analysis of dynamic thermal processes in building construc-
tions means a new concept of building IR thermography.
In this paper, we shall discuss physical aspects of this
concept and illustrate them with some experimental results.
The main goal is the setting up of novel building diagnostic
procedures. Using a quantitative processing of thermal
images sequences, the identification and characterisation of
different kinds of defects, buried in the building envelope, is
possible.
2. Outline of the concept
Every building construction is naturally subject to varia-
tions in outdoor-indoor temperatures, mainly due to the solar
cycle. This means, the temperature pattern on a wall, recorded
by thermography, should be regarded as a function of spatial
coordinates and time. The analysis of thermal images will
bring us to space and time-domain treatment of temperature
data.
The local thermal resistance (R = Z/h) of a building com-
ponent is the most important thermal parameter to be consid-
ered in our study. It relates to thermal conductivity (A) and
the component’s thickness (I). It directly affects the pre-
scribed heat fluxes through the envelope. This parameter
relates to a stationary regime but does not reveal the reaction
of the object toward sharp variations of outdoor climatic
conditions. Thermal diffusivity: a = A/C p (C is the specific
heat and p the density) or effusivity (b = ( ~QJ)‘.~) should
be introduced when evaluating temperature variations in
time.
Therefore, both the analysis of thermal bridges and the
characterisation of subsurface defects could be reduced to
solve the transient heat conduction problem. On the contrary,
air tightness tests and moisture detection presume analysis of
heat and mass transfer. In some cases, moisture concentration
could be considered as a local variation in thermal properties
of porous materials. Air leaks could also be treated as local
variations in heat exchange coefficients. This very simplified
approach allows to analyse differential equations of only heat
but not mass transfer. Nevertheless, a local solution is
required and, therefore, a dense temperature mapping.
Focusing the problem of the building diagnostic, we shall
regard any divergence between building ‘normal’ tempera-
ture and current thermographic results as a potential defect.
For instance, an insulation deficiency or a plaster detachment
(an air filled void) will be modelled as an internal, well
localised, different thermal conductivity. In its turn, a mois-
tened zone will be viewed as an area of smoothly changing
thermal properties of the bulk material.
By analogy with NDT in industry, the detection of defects
could be made by statistical rules, involving probabilities of
correct detection and false alarm [ 141.
From experimental point of view, transient thermal
regimes could be achieved naturally by solar irradiation or
and Buildings 29 (199811-9
applying artificial heat sources. In the first case, the heating
function will be approximately periodic. In the second case,
there is much of freedom in defining this function. Square-
pulse and harmonic heating are the most usable techniques.
The use of a radiant heat source allows to control precisely
this function both in time and space. On the other hand, a
convective source eliminates the effect of the optical absorp-
tion coefficient of the surface, which in most cases gives much
more complex readings.
In order to reduce undesired effects caused by uneven
heating, complex geometry and variations in object absorb-
tivity and emissivity, the time-domain treatment is forwarded.
It is demonstrated that this approach enhances the detection
reliability by suppressing image cluster which is normally
existing in trivial IR images analysed only by means of tem-
perature amplitude [ 15 1.
3. Practical heating techniques
Sun irradiation is uniformly distributed. Unfortunately, the
power density incident on the surface depends on the geo-
graphical location and surface orientation, season of the year
and sky conditions. In southern countries, like Italy, the sun
could deliver onto a normal surface, during summertime,
more than 1 kW mP2. An example of daily variations in solar
irradiation on the horizontal surface is shown in Fig. 1 for
Northern Italy [ 161. It is clearly seen that in a sunny day, the
solar function could be reasonably approximated with a sine
function. High latitude regions like Finland or Russia are
strongly limited to use the sun in the scheduled and long-run
IR surveys. There are only a few reports dealing with the use
of solar radiant flux in NDE (e.g., roof moisture [ 171, delam-
inated bridge decks [ 181, mine fields [ 191 detection).
Heating a whole building with an artificial source may
create practical problems. On the other side, the heating func-
tion could be easily organised in a pre-determined and flexible
way on a rather high power density. The total area is normally
constituted of a mosaic of elementary areas to be tested,
usually 0.5-l m’ each. In the practice, hot air sources or banks
of several incandescent IR lamps could be used.
In any case, the amount of energy must be carefully deter-
mined in order to reach a level of the ‘thermal signal’ clearly
distinguished from the ‘noise’ involved in the measure, but
not too high to damage sensitive building components. The
oom 6:OO 12:OO 18:OO 24:00
Fig. 1. Variations in solar irradiation during three themographic survey on
Northern Italy (45”N).
 E. Grinzato et al. /Energy
second crucial point is the choice of the heating time and the
duration of the temperature recording. All these points will
be further discussed on following paragraphs.
Another unpleasant problem when applying artificial
sources is the uneven energy distribution that could seriously
distort inspection results (see also p. 6). Recently, the use of
gas or oil burners for powerful, uniform and large-area heat-
ing is under discussion, although there is still a lack of par-
ticular experimental practice. Finally, artificial change of
indoor climate, e.g., opening windows, could be mentioned
as a rather curious technique which provides easy but low-
energy excitation.
4. Inspection models in IR building thermography
The TNDE exploits the nature of the defect. In simpler
case, defects generate themselves a heat flux (overheated
electrical joints, hot water leaks from buried pipes, etc.). In
the other cases, the temperature of defects prior to a test is
equal to the surrounding material and a thermal stimulus is
needed to reveal them. In fact, the different heat capacity or
diffusivity of the defected volume modify locally the imposed
heat flux. This classification fits well on building applications,
Air leaks between a room and the environment at different
temperature belongs to the first category and there is no need
for additional thermal excitation. However, the ‘visibility’ of
through-the-wall air leakage could be enhanced by depres-
surizing the volume under test.
An interesting case is the identification of dump areas.
Often, these zones are well seen in thermograms as colder
areas due to evaporative cooling. So far, moist areas visibility
could be enhanced by heating the surface, due to high heat
capacity of water. Besides, the increased water content gen-
erally enhances thermal conductivity, too. Therefore, atten-
tion must be paid to balance different effects acting at the
same time.
Deficiencies in insulation and detachments between a mas-
sive wall and a covering layer do not produce or absorb any
heat themselves but they can be seen due to a temperature
difference trough the wall.
All these kinds of defects could be the object for transient
IR thermography and a varying heat flux will reveal the depth
of buried defects. The main goal of the proposed concept for
building thermography is forwarded to the detection of hid-
den structure irregularities. Physical models of the above
mentioned defects in buildings are sketched in Fig. 2.
5. Basic procedure for the defects detection
The proposed concept will be illustrated with some exam-
ples. Each kind of defect shown in Fig. 2 requires a suitable
procedure to be detected. A numerical simulation of the mod-
els was performed using a dedicated package, developed at
Tomsk Polytechnic University [ 201. The program allows to
and Buildings 29 (1998) 1-9
Bricks Rockwool
b) 4
Insulation Thermal bridge
Moistulre
deficiency
Fig. 2. Physical models of defects in building inspected by IR thermography.
calculate the thermal signals over defects, that is the temper-
ature difference between defected and sound zone. These
results allow to properly design the inspection procedure for
each individual case.
5.1. Plaster-brick delamination
In the first example, a plaster detachment from a massive
wall has been considered. The defect has been simulated in
cylindrical coordinates with an air-filled disk-shaped volume
(diameter 100 mm, thickness 1 mm). It has been placed
between the external plaster surface and a brick wall (Fig.
3). An advantage of the transient inspection, if compared to
steady one, is the time and energy saving. In fact, the transient
inspection is normally performed only on one side, therefore,
only a shallow layer is heated. On the contrary, the steady
procedure requires the gradient to be applied to the whole
wall. It is worth noticing that the defect depth is a crucial
factor which determines the temperature history in time, when
the heat flux is applied to the inspected surface. Obviously, a
delamination under internal plaster layer should be detected
from indoors.
The graphs on the right of Fig. 3 show the ‘thermal signal’
due to a defect (AT [K]). It is defined as the difference
between the temperature of the surface above the defect ( Td)
and the ‘normal’ one. The normal surface temperature (7;)
is measured on a sound area submitted to the same boundary
conditions.
To analyse stationary conditions, let us assume that
indoor-outdoor temperature gradient is about 20 K (it is often
reported that 10 K minimum gradient is needed to perform a
thermographic survey). The calculated stationary tempera-
ture signal over the defect (AT,“‘) is AT,“‘=O.l K, i.e., on
the limit level of temperature resolution achieved in modem
IR imagers. Moreover, our experience in practical IR inspec-
tion gives fluctuations of temperature over sound areas due
to various disturbances of not less than 0.245 K. This means
that detection of defects like the analysed one would be
extremely difficult in steady state.
Transient inspection test could be organised by delivering
radiant heat flux onto the external wall from a suitable heat
source, e.g., using bank of lamps. At the moment, we shall
skip detection problems related to uneven heating, reflections
 E. Grinzato et al. /Energy
(240 mm)
-L
Fig. 3. Detection of a detachment of the plaster layer from the masonry
surface temperature pattern, computed in time and space are also shown.
etc. in order to analyse ‘pure’ difference between transient
and stationary regimes. We shall assume that a heat source
will provide about 1000 W m-2 of absorbed energy during
600 s. There is much to discuss about the optimisation of
such a procedure and a rather deep theoretical analysis is
needed to design the heating function [ 211. In this example,
we shall only state that, starting from the time when the heat
source is turned on, a temperature signal over a defect will
increase and reach its maximum value at 620 s. In this partic-
ular case, the optimum observation time ( 7,) is roughly equal
to the maximum absolute temperature on the surface, but this
is not a rule, for other values of plaster thickness r, will be
shorter or longer. In general, the deeper the defect, the longer
7,. Of course, it also depends on the thermal diffusivity of
the plaster. The maximum amplitude of the transient signal
is AT,” = 1.06 K that is significantly higher than in a steady
state regime (Fig. 3).
5.2. Insulation deficiency diagnosis
Fig. 4 illustrates the usage of solar radiation for detecting
deficiencies on an insulation layer buried in a wall. The exper-
imental study reported in the next paragraph was prepared by
the following numerical simulation.
Let us assume that solar energy varies harmonically with
maximum density 400 W me2 occurring about 13 h (summer
time), as shown in Fig. 1. In a sound area, temperature ( T,)
will vary harmonically from about 12” to 18.3”C above initial
temperature, which has been taken equal to zero. Over the
defect, temperature (T,) will also vary harmonically with
slightly higher amplitude. Maximums in both sound and
defect points occur at about 14 h, that is 1 h later the solar
noon (Fig. 4). The difference between Td and T, is a periodic
function which reaches positive AT,+ and negative AT,,-
extremums twice a period (respectively at rm+ = 11 h and
rrll - = 23 h) . The temperature signal over the defect is within
and Buildings 29 (1998) l-9
Coordinate [mm]
b
B
c0 air temoerature
wall using artificial thermal stimulus. The adopted physical model and the outdoor
the resolution range of modem IR imagers but, probably, its
identification will be difficult on the background of noise due
to the structure itself [ 14,211. Moreover, detection will be
easier when solar irradiation (or air temperature) varies at a
higher extent.
The example above shows there are two optimum obser-
vation times during a day for detecting subsurface defects.
5.3. Thermal bridges Ifootprints’ on the su$ace
Thermal bridges are created by somestructural elements
(supports, panels,reinforcement, hooks etc.), aswell as by
somedefects. For instance, a water-filled insulation porous
material it is generally more conductive than the dry one.
To illustrate this statement,three caseshave been calcu-
lated and shown in Fig. 5 where a concrete-rockwool-con-
Cretesandwich panel with a bar crossingthe insulation layer
is considered.It is clearly seenin Fig. 5a,b that a steelbar of
minor diameter will create a negligible thermal bridge even
if a through-wall temperaturegradient of 20 K exists. On the
contrary, internal concrete strengthening elements will be
quite good conductors of heat (see Fig. 5~). The increased
heat flux produces warm areason the outer wall. In fact a
temperature signal of 0.3”C is obtained for the concrete bar
and extended panelswill create even higher signals.
5.4. Moistened areas location
Water which infiltrates into building envelopeswill create
moistened areas where thermal resistanceof material will
decreasecreating a sort of thermal bridges. Due to its higher
thermal capacity, moistenedareasarecharacterisedby a par-
ticular ‘dynamic behaviour’ that is usedin roof inspection
[ 17,221. To evaluate the magnitudeof the involved temper-
ature signals, the temperature distribution over a concrete-
rockwoolxoncrete sandwichpanel hasbeencomputed.Both
 E. Grinzato et al. /Energy and Buildings 29 (1998) l-9

400 W/m2

time [h]

Concrete (50 mm)

Fig. 4. Detection of the air-filled defect in rockwool insulation using solar irradiation.

Indoor-
outdoor

(diameter I mm) (diameter 5 mm)

Fig. 5. Simulation of thermal bridges in rockwool insulation between two concrete panels.

covering layers are 50 mm thick and the insulation layer ( 100 6.1. Detection of covering layers detachment
mm) contains a volume with increased water content (Fig.
6). Both stationary and dynamic regimes have been evalu- Several tests have been performed on a segment of wall
ated. It has been found that even 50% moistened area located built reproducing ancient building in the Italian style. The
behind a concrete layer will create about 0.1 K temperature specimen ( 1.5 X 1 m2) was constructed of very old bricks
difference. Detection of such a small signal is hardly possible. and covered by plaster made according to ancient recipes.
Obviously, the case of surface moisture, e.g., in outer wall The scheme of Fig. 7a shows the location of artificial defects
finishing, would be more appropriate for IR thermography. buried in the plaster at different depth. The plaster cover
consisted of two layers of thickness 15 mm each. The deepest
defect (#3) is circular with a diameter of 200 mm and a
6. Experimental results thickness of 5 mm. It was contained in the layer attached to
the brick wall at a depth from the outer surface of about 20
mm. In the shallowest plaster layer, there were two defects,
Some experimental results are reported to understand bet-
2 mm of thickness both (# 1 and #2) at an estimated depth
ter potentials of the combined space and time-domain treat-
ranging from 11 to 15 mm (in fact, the cross-shaped defect
ment applied to thermographic inspection. In order to verify
consisted in its turn of two overlapping defects). Thus, defect
accurately results of measurements, we chose to work in very
thickness was double in the centre of the ‘cross’. The plaster
controlled conditions.
thickness was halved on the rectangular area placed at the
left top corner of the specimen (area #4). This defect is not
Moist area a target for this inspection, because it is clearly visible by eye,
5 (diameter 200 mm)
but it represents a severe disturbance, frequently encountered
in situ inspection of historical buildings.
The specimen was placed outside and oriented in such a
way that it was subjected to direct solar irradiation from 10
a.m. The maximum of incident energy on the vertical surface
-w Indoor-outdoor gradient 20 K (620 W mM2) was observed between 12 a.m. and 1 p.m. The
Fig. 6. Detection of subsurface moisture in rockwool. maximum surface temperature in a sound area occurred at
 E. Grinzato
Fig. 7. Detection of defects inside a 30 mm plaster layer according to thermal tomography: (a) Defects location. (b) IR image at best observation time. (c)
Amplitude of the thermal signal. (d) Thermal tomogram of the layer up to 5 mm. (e) Thermal tomogram of the layer IO-15 mm. (f) Thermal tomogram of
the iayer 2&30 mm.
about 1:30 p.m. in good accordance with the theory. IR
images were recorded with 10 min sampling time, using a
digital thermographic system.
A goal of this experiment was to apply a technique known
as Thermal Tomography [ 14,15,21] using the sun as heat
source. The Thermal Tomography is based on the fact that
the maximum of the thermal signal appears at a particular
time depending on thermal properties of the material and the
depth of the defect. Besides, the amplitude of the thermal
signal decreases with increasing the distance of the defect
from the surface. Therefore, knowing the material, it is pos-
sible to characterise the defect volume from the time evolu-
tion of the temperature on the surface.
The whole sequence has been processed using the Thermal
Tomography algorithm which enables to ‘slice’ a specimen
according to time of the maximum signal (specified as rmi
or r,-) and amplitude within prescribed values.
et al. /Energy and Buildings 29 (1998) l-9
The thermogram digitised at the best observation time for
defects # 1, #2 and the area #4 are shown in Fig. 7b. The
image in Fig. 7c illustrates as the amplitudes images itself,
enhance a little defects appearance, including the scarcely
visible defect #3. Three tomograms in Fig. 7d-f exhibit the
specimen structure at different depths. The usage of space
and time domain not only improves significantly the defect
location, but gives quantitative results on their geometrical
features. In fact, the layer closer to the surface (Fig. 7d) is
free of larger clusters except for some minor artifacts. Two
large defects, #l and #2, are clearly seen in Fig. 7e. The
deepest defect, #3, appears in the tomogram of Fig. 7f
together with the area #4. It is also worth noticing the artifacts
around the ‘cross’ and on the specimen borders, which are
common for Thermal Tomography. They could be usually
suppressed by establishing an amplitude threshold but in our
case it would hide the defect #3. Image processing has been
 E. Grinzato et al. /Energy and Buildings 29 (1998) l-9 I

performed using the ‘Termidge’ software developed at
Tomsk Polytechnic University [ 201.
Fig. Sa,b shows a good agreement between measured and
computed data referred to the described experiment. Never-
theless, the evaluation of defects depth and volume was not
completely satisfying using simple theoretical predictions
coming from the model with harmonic heating. Probably, this
was due to the fact that real heating function in our outdoor
experiment contains much more harmonics than the model
and thermal properties of the plaster have not been measured
but recovered from the literature. On the contrary, good
results and data convergence have been reported using Ther-
mal Tomography with a periodic heating on a real building
u31.
6.2. Integration of thermography and air tightnesstest
At VTT Building Technology, outdoor IR surveys are per-
formed in combination with air tightnesstests.The indoor air
pressureof the building under inspectionis firstly decreased.
Afterwards, air leakage trough the wall becomesvisible on
the indoor surfacedue to penetrationof cold air from outside.

700

BOO

500

400

300

200

,100

2andsyrwd
---ems8 overbpq
-crws up
-cro* centor

Fig. 8. (a) Experimental surface temperature vs. time for the artificial defects reproducing plaster detachment. (b) Data given by numerical simulation of the
experiment on plaster detachment.
 E. Grinzato et al. /Energy and Buildings 29 (1998) 1-9

Fig. 9. IR survey of a private house at Oulu, Finland. (a) source image before depressurization; (b) differential image.

In order to distinguish better between thermal bridges and air R=l A-’ thermal resistance Km2W-’
leaks, we produced a differential IR image, before and after a=h (cp)-’ thermal diffusivity m2 s - ’
pressure changes. An example is shown in Fig. 9. It is seen b= (A cp)“.5 thermal effusivity w so.5m-2
that air leaks are well seen on a rather uniform background, K-’
meanwhile thermal bridges are subdued.

7. Conclusions
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