Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-019-00337-8

ORIGINAL PAPER

Application of infrared thermography for debonding detection

in asphalt pavements
Vidhi Vyas1 · Vedant Jagdish Patil1 · Ajit Pratap Singh1   · Anshuman Srivastava1

Received: 18 October 2018 / Accepted: 9 May 2019 / Published online: 20 May 2019
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
Conventional testing practices in pavement damage surveillance and maintenance such as coring tend to be slow, destruc-
tive in nature and not wholly representative of the entire stretch of the pavement. Newly emerging technologies based on
non-destructive testing techniques, do not demand implementing destructive measures or relying on extrapolation of point
data and can be implemented after developing them into a proper technique and a set testing protocol. One such emerging
technique that uses infrared emissions from any structure to inspect underlying defects is infrared thermography (IRT). In a
patch of pavement containing subsurface defects, the heat flow to the surface of the pavement, which itself depends on the
incident solar radiation, ambient temperature and other meteorological factors, gets disrupted causing a difference in the
thermal signature of the defective and the sound patches. This difference in thermal signature can potentially be detected by
a thermal imaging camera. This study aims at exploring the potential of IRT technique to assess the subsurface debonding
defect in asphalt pavements. For this purpose, an in situ asphalt pavement test section has been constructed and different
interlayer bonding conditions have been artificially induced in it. A novel way for quantitative and qualitative analyses
of thermal signatures, using MATLAB for each of these bonding conditions has been carried out. The effect of different
debonding agents on the overall thermal behavior of asphalt pavement has also been evaluated. Interchange time duration
between day heating and night cooling cycles has been estimated, to determine the suitable time duration for asphalt pave-
ment inspection. The results, advantages, and limitations of the method have been presented.

Keywords  Infrared thermography · Asphalt pavements · Non-destructive testing · Image processing · Thermal image

1 Introduction of asphalt pavements or overlays, it is necessary to achieve a

proper degree of bond between the layers. An adequate tack
Roads provide increased mobility for people and goods and coat ensures that the tacked layers behave as a structural
play a vital role in socio-economic advancement of the area. monolith against traffic loading and environmental effects.
Asphalt pavements, apart from being cost efficient, can be Improper adhesion at these layer interfaces causes the two
quickly constructed and are comparatively easier to main- layers to behave as thin individual layers and results in the
tain. They provide smooth and comfortable riding surface phenomenon called debonding. Poor construction practices,
and reduce noise pollution. To ensure the structural integrity temperature stresses or high vehicular loading may be attrib-
uted to the causes of debonding. The performance of pave-
* Ajit Pratap Singh ment gets adversely affected and also gives rise to distresses
aps@pilani.bits‑pilani.ac.in including permanent deformation, top-down cracking, and
Vidhi Vyas eventually reduced service life.
p2013065@pilani.bits‑pilani.ac.in Direct assessment of debonding is difficult. Visual detec-
Vedant Jagdish Patil tion of debonding is usually not possible, unless it appears
f2014634p@alumni.bits‑pilani.ac.in in the form of crescent-shaped slippage cracks on surface;
Anshuman Srivastava mostly at the locations where high horizontal stresses occur.
anshu@pilani.bits‑pilani.ac.in It is often associated with various indicators such as higher
surface deflections, higher moisture content, reduced density
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Birla Institute and pavement material stiffness, at the debonded locations.
of Technology and Science Pilani, Pilani, Rajasthan, India

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326
Non-destructive tools help in identification of the extent and
depth of debonding, based on these indicators.
Infrared thermography (IRT) is one of the non-destructive
testing (NDT) and remote-sensing techniques which offers
identification of subsurface flaws with reasonable accuracy.
All bodies at temperature over 0 K emit radiations with the
wavelength proportional to their temperature and lying in the
infrared portion (wavelength 0.75 μm and 1000 μm) of the
electromagnetic spectrum [1]. IRT is based on the principle
of capturing this radiation. The emitted infrared radiations
are detected by infrared measuring devices and temperature
of the surface is calculated based on Stefan–Boltzmann’s
law, which is expressed as shown in Eq. (1):
q
= 𝜀𝜎T 4 , (1)
A
where q is the rate of energy emission (W), A is the
area of the emitting surface (­ m2), T is the absolute tem-
perature (K), 𝜎 is the Stefan–Boltzmann’s constant
( 𝜎 = 5.676 × 10−8 Wm−2 K−4) and 𝜀 is the emissivity of the
emitting surface for a fixed wavelength and absolute tem-
perature T. Emissivity is unity for a perfect blackbody, but
it is always less than unity, for real surfaces.
Subsurface anomalies existing in any material, hinder the
heat flow through it and create localized surface temperature
variations, which is captured using thermal imaging camera
[2]. These devices transform the acquired radiations into
electronic signals [3]. Further, a color is assigned to each
infrared energy level to convert the acquired images into
visible images. A warmer object is generally indicated by
the spectrum of red or orange color while blue or violet color
indicates cooler object [4]. Further details of the method can
be found elsewhere in the literature [5, 6].
Subsurface cracks, voids, spalls and delaminations in
concrete bridge components, pavements, building walls, and
other structural components, have been successfully detected
using IRT [7–12]. IRT has shown promising results in iden-
tifying debonding, stripping, voids in asphalt pavements
also, for those located at shallow depths (40–70 mm) [13,
14]. Celaya et al. [15] reported that IRT could identify only
the severely debonded areas in a controlled study. However,
it has not been proven to be effective in estimating the depth
and thickness of the defect. For this case, a combination of
IRT with GPR has been suggested [1, 16, 17]. Various exter-
nal factors such as, intensity and amount of solar radiation,
maximum and minimum temperature in a day and ambient
air temperature variation between day and night, affect the
detection of debonding [14, 16]. In addition to assessing
debonding in asphalt pavements and overlays, it has shown
its potential to detect thermal segregation and reflective
cracking potential [18–20].
This paper presents the results of research conducted on
identifying the effectiveness of infrared thermography in
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Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337
detecting subsurface flaws of asphalt pavements, particularly
interlayer debonding. Infrared thermography tests have been
performed on a constructed in situ asphalt pavement test sec-
tion, which consists of sections with different bond condi-
tions. The thermal images have been analysed qualitatively
and quantitatively to extract various information from them.
2 Scope and objectives
The objectives of this study are to assess the suitability of
conducting infrared thermographic inspection of asphalt
pavements to identify interlayer debonding and to esti-
mate ideal time durations for the same. Impact of different
debonding materials as per their thermal conductivities on
the overall thermal behaviour of pavement has also been
studied. In addition to this, the work aims at developing a
methodology for post processing of thermal images so as to
quantitatively analyse the results.
3 Experimental programme
3.1 Construction of in situ asphalt pavement test
section
For the purpose of performing field non-destructive test-
ing, a 150  mm thick in  situ asphalt pavement test sec-
tion (1.8 × 6 m) has been constructed as an overlay on exist-
ing asphalt pavement. The test section has been constructed
at such a location so as to get enough solar loading for
maximum duration in a day. Prior to testing, the surfaces
have been properly cleaned to avoid any ambiguity in the
measurements. Three hot-mix asphalt (HMA) lifts of 50 mm
each have been laid and properly compacted using smooth
wheel road roller. The test section has been divided into
various blocks of 60 × 60 cm, as per the bond conditions
induced in them. These blocks consist of different artificially
constructed conditions of interlayer bonding and under-
ground buried objects, placed at three depths of 50, 100,
and 150 mm. The bond conditions include four debonding
conditions using sand (no bond: 1), grease (no bond: 2), pol-
ythene (no bond: 3), and bentonite slurry (no bond: 4); one
partial bonding condition using dust along the wheel paths
and one full bonding condition using optimum amount of
tack coat to compare the results. The rationale for choosing
these materials is to simulate actual field conditions of bond-
ing. The first reason for selecting these materials was that in
actual field conditions, debonding might likely occur due to
the presence of a sandy or clayey type of soil (from vehicle
tires), or grease from vehicles or polythene since it is easier
to find such materials on the road. Second, since the rate of
heat flow through any block would depend upon the thermal
Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337 327

Fig. 1  Schematic of constructed in situ asphalt pavement test section showing different conditions of the interlayer bond

conductivity of the material induced in it, therefore, to study Table 1  Technical specifications of FLIR T250 thermal camera [21]
the influence of the bonding agent on thermal behavior of Particulars Specifications Unit
the pavement, materials having a significant difference in
their thermal conductivity values were chosen. For exam- Measurement object temperature − 20 to + 350 °C
ple, the thermal conductivity value for bentonite slurry is range
Accuracy 2% of reading or ± 2 °C
3–4 W m−1K−1 which is about 15–20 times more than that of
Thermal sensitivity at 30 °C 80 mK
sand (0.15–0.25 W m−1K−1). It was expected that they would
Field of view (FOV) 25 × 19 °
represent different cases of interchange time durations quite
Minimum focus distance 0.4 m
widely and efficiently. The dimensions of all the test blocks
Spatial resolution 2.18 mrad
are kept the same in this study. It should be noted that effect
Spectral range 7.5–13 µm
of thermal boundary losses and variation in sample size or
Imaging frequency 9 Hz
dimension of test blocks are beyond the scope of this study.
IR resolution 320 × 240 pixel
Figure 1 depicts the schematic of a part of the constructed
Focal plane array Uncooled microbolometer –
test section (bonding conditions at 50 mm depth) over which
Digital zoom 1–2× –
satisfactory testing results have been obtained. It is to be
noted that for bond conditions and underground objects
located at greater depths of 100 and 150 mm, no distinguish-
able color changes or significant thermal images could be temperature, wind speed, and emissivity have also been
obtained. Thus, they have refrained from any further testing taken into consideration.
and analysis and the results have been presented only for the
cases of 50 mm depth. 3.3 Data acquisition

Comprehensive data collection has been performed over a

3.2 Instrument
A FLIR T250 infrared thermography camera has been uti-
lized for taking thermal images. Laser pointer helps to aim
the target surface and the camera collects and stores images
of 320 × 240 pixels resolution. Table 1 summarizes some
of the main technical specifications of the thermal camera
[21]. The testing has been performed as per ASTM D4788-
88 standards [22]. Passive approach (sunlight) has been
employed to produce temperature differentials on pave-
ment surface. Environmental conditions such as, ambient
air temperature and relative humidity, pavement surface
period of 1 month to capture the best results. Infrared images
of the pavement test section have been taken regularly over
30-min time intervals (from 00:00 to 23:30 h) and their post
processing has been performed. It is ensured that the images
are captured from same height, direction and measurement
angle every time, to ensure reproducibility in measurements.
Due to brevity reasons, the results of a typical sunny summer
day have been presented. Images for all the bonding condi-
tions have been taken block-wise, with the camera aperture
at a height of ~ 0.5 m from the pavement surface. Table 2
presents the environmental conditions measured at the local
weather station on the day of testing. Pavement temperature

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328
Table 2  Environmental conditions at the time of testing
Ambient temper- Relative humid- Wind speed Pavement tempera-
ature range (°C) ity range (%) (km h−1) ture range (°C)
28–40 15–57 3–10
range has been measured by thermocouple installed on the
test section.
Figure 2 shows the variation in profile of ambient temper-
ature, relative humidity and pavement temperature through-
out the day of testing. With increase in ambient temperature,
it can be seen that pavement temperature is increasing and
relative humidity is decreasing, and vice versa.
4 Data processing
Analysis of thermal images to interpret the results is one of
the challenging tasks of infrared thermography. Very subjec-
tive judgement can be provided by visually observing the
color contrast of the images and it is more of an experience-
based practice. Furthermore, under natural environmental
conditions in passive thermography, many a times the color
variation is not clearly observed. Hence, in this study, a more
objective approach has been developed and data processing
has been performed in two stages. But first, the basics of
thermal imaging are explained in the subsequent section.
4.1 Imaging basics and pre‑processing
A digital image is basically a two-dimensional (2D) array of
pixels, with each pixel carrying information about a small
chunk of the whole image area. A pixel is fundamentally a
one-dimensional array, with number of elements equal to
number of color bands in the image. It is the combination
of these scalars in the pixel that determines what color the
point will look like in an image. In case of a digital infrared
Fig. 2  Variation in environmen-
tal parameters at the time of
infrared thermography testing
Environmental parameters
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Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337
image, the pixel represents a unique temperature value,
instead of color. Thus, in an infrared image, a pixel value is
the temperature of the area that the pixel represents. Infrared
cameras generally capture the image and impart a color to
23.6–56.5
the temperature which aids the process of visual inspection.
The thermal images have been taken in auto mode of FLIR
T250 camera, to accommodate the surface points with high-
est and lowest temperatures and all the other intermediate
values. This ensures that there is no loss of information. All
the images have been calibrated to the same temperature scale
values using FLIR QuickReport software (version 1.2 SP2), to
accommodate the maximum and minimum temperature values
when all of them are considered together [23]. Post-calibration
has also been performed on the basis of the atmospheric tem-
perature, relative humidity, acquisition height, and reflected
apparent temperature of the targets. The final output of this
first phase of processing was a set of 8-bit grayscale images.
4.2 Thermal image processing using MATLAB
The FLIR QuickReport output is fed as input to MATLAB
and images, fundamentally being matrices, are read by
MATLAB as 1200 × 1300 uint8 matrices. The uint8 suffix
signifies that the matrix elements can only take integer val-
ues from 0 to 255 which are suitable only for standalone
images. The artificial defects in the test section are uniformly
spread in their respective blocks. This calls for an objective
quantitative type of analysis. To see exactly how much the
thermal signature of a debonded area is different from that
of a bonded one, temperature histogram for each debonding
condition has been plotted against the temperature histogram
of the full bond condition, in the same MATLAB figure.
This is done to compare the distributions. The grayscale
pixel matrix has been converted to its corresponding tem-
perature matrix by implementing Eq. (2):
( )
Th − Tl
Tij = Tl + Pij × , (2)
256
60
50
40
30 Ambient temperature (°C)
Relative humidty (%)
20
Pavement temperature (°C)
10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time (hours)
Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337 329

16 50

14 45
40

Ambient temperature (°C)

12
Thermal contrast (°C)
35
10 30
8 25

6 20
15
4
10
2 5
0 0

Time (hours)

Sand Dust Grease Polythene Bentonite slurry Ambient temperature

Fig. 3  Hourly thermal contrast variation due to different interlayer bond conditions in test section

where Tij is the temperature at the point corresponding to
the pixel in the ith row and jth column, Tl is the calibrated
minimum temperature, Th is the calibrated maximum tem-
perature, and Pij is the grayscale intensity of the pixel in the
ith row and jth column.
The histograms of these temperature matrices have then
been plotted, debonded against bonded in the same figure,
as mentioned earlier. The average temperatures for the dis-
tributions have also been plotted to gauge the amount of
thermal contrast.
5 Results and discussion
As per the ASTM D4788 specifications for delamination
inspection on bridge decks, ‘the minimum temperature
difference of 0.5 °C between bonded and debonded area
is required to be detected by infrared camera, with testing
performed when wind speed is less than 50 km h−1’ [22].
This has been observed to be true for the asphalt pavements
too. The processing in MATLAB facilitates this finding, by
plotting comparative histograms between temperature of the
test section and pixel count. The average temperature line for
the bonded and the debonded sections has also been shown
in the plots and their corresponding thermal contrasts have
been calculated. This process has been repeated for all bond-
ing conditions, at every 30-min interval for the entire day.
Figure 3 presents the variation of thermal contrast for
each of the debonded blocks, over a period of 24 h. The
thermal contrast can be seen to be strongly influenced by the
change in ambient temperature. It is found to be increasing
with increase in ambient temperature.
Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 present the
results of thermal variation over sand-debonded and -bonded

Fig. 4  Comparison of colored and grayscale IR images at 02:30 h

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330 Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337

5
10
2.5

Sand

Bonded Asphalt
2 Mean Temp - Sand
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

1.5
Pixel Count

0.5

0
26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29 29.5 30

Temperature (in °C)

Fig. 5  Histograms for sand and asphalt block at 02:30 h

Fig. 6  Comparison of colored and grayscale IR images at 10:00 h

5
10
2.5

Sand

Bonded Asphalt
2
Mean Temp - Sand
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

1.5
Pixel Count

0.5

0
33 33.5 34 34.5 35 35.5 36

Temperature (in °C)

Fig. 7  Histograms for sand and asphalt block at 10:00 h

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Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337 331

Fig. 8  Comparison of colored and grayscale IR images at 11:00 h

5
10
2.5

Sand

Bonded Asphalt
2 Mean Temp - Sand
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

1.5
Pixel Count

0.5

0
58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66

Temperature (in °C)

Fig. 9  Histograms for sand and asphalt block at 11:00 h

Fig. 10  Comparison of colored and grayscale IR images at 15:00 h

areas. Since the best clarity results are obtained for sand-
debonded condition, thus, to avoid repetition and for brev-
ity reasons, the entire process has been comprehensively
explained for sand and bonded condition. Similar trends in
results were obtained for all other bond conditions also, with
only difference in interchange time durations, which are pre-
sented in later sections.
Figure 4a, b present the raw infrared (IR) colored and
grayscale images for sand-debonded and -bonded asphalt
conditions, respectively, at around 02:30 h. Their compara-
tive histogram is shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that the
temperature of sand-debonded block lies in the range of
about 27.0–28.0 °C, and that for bonded block is around
28.5–29.5 °C. This is evident from the grayscale image for
the bonded area as the pixels are brighter and towards higher

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332 Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337

5
10
2.5

Sand
2 Bonded Asphalt
Mean Temp - Sand
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt
1.5
Pixel Count

0.5

0
66 67 68 69 70 71 72

Temperature (in °C)

Fig. 11  Histograms for sand and asphalt block at 15:00 h

Fig. 12  Comparison of colored and grayscale IR images at 17:00 h

5
10
2.5

Sand

Bonded Asphalt
2 Mean Temp - Sand
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

1.5
Pixel Count

0.5

0
45 45.5 46 46.5 47 47.5 48 48.5 49 49.5

Temperature (in °C)

Fig. 13  Histograms for sand and asphalt block at 17:00 h

temperature zone. Relatively, the image for sand-debonded which is greater than 0.5 °C, and thus makes debonded
condition is darker and lies on the lower side of the tem- area detectable by thermal imaging camera. This trend of
perature scale. The thermal contrast is found to be 1.45 °C bonded asphalt block being relatively warmer than the sand

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Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337 333

Table 3  Summary of day heating and night cooling interchange time sand and bonded asphalt as shown in Fig. 7 are observed to
durations for different bond conditions be merging during this time duration, which is an indication
Bond condition Interchange time durations of similarity in thermal signatures. The thermal contrast is
found to be 0.025 °C, being less than 0.5 °C. This trend is
Morning (h) Afternoon/evening (h)
observed for around 2 h in the morning (8:00–10:00 h in
No bond: 1 (sand) 8:00–10:00 14:30–15:30 this case). In such cases, the debonded areas go unidentified
Partial bond (dust along wheel 9:30–10:00 17:30–20:00 through thermal imaging camera and infrared thermography
path) is not found effective in detecting subsurface debonding.
No bond: 2 (grease) 6:30–10:00 18:00–23:00 As the day progresses, the increasing ambient tempera-
No bond: 3 (polythene) 7:30–10:00 18:00–22:00 ture and intensity of solar radiation cause sand-debonded
No bond: 4 (bentonite slurry) 7:00–10:00 17:30–20:30 block to heat up at higher rate than the bonded block.
At around 11:00 h, the thermal image for sand block is
brighter than that for the bonded asphalt block as seen
debonded block is observed throughout the night. This is from Fig.  8a, b. The nature of the contrast flips, is as
because of the fact that the intermediate debonded layer shown in Fig. 9. Sand-debonded block lies in tempera-
acts as insulator and hinders the heat flow. It causes HMA ture range of 61.5–65.8 °C, whereas bonded asphalt block
block above debonding to cool or warm faster than the fully lies in temperature range of 58.5–62.5 °C. Within an hour
bonded block, which undergoes slow heating and cooling. (10:00–11:00 am), it is observed that the average tempera-
As sun rises, the ambient temperature starts rising. This ture increase for sand debonded block is around 28.8 °C
causes warming of the sand-debonded block at a higher whereas for bonded asphalt block is 25.5 °C. Thermal con-
rate due to the presence of internal discontinuity. It can be trast is found to be around 3.2 °C, lying in detectable range
observed from Fig. 6a, b that at 10:00 h the thermal images of thermal camera.
show almost no contrast with the pixels in both being equally Further the temperature rises for both the blocks, but
bright. The temperature for both sand and asphalt blocks rather slowly for sand block, since it has almost reached to
lies in the range of about 34.5–35.5 °C. The histograms for its maximum possible temperature. Sand-debonded block

Table 4  IR images and histograms at different times of the day for partial bonded and bonded asphalt blocks
Time Raw IR image Histogram
5
10
3.5

Dust
3
Bonded Asphalt

2.5 Mean Temp - Dust

Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt
2
04:00
Pixel Count

1.5

hours 1

0.5

0
26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29

Temperature (in °C)

5
10
3.5

Dust
3
Bonded Asphalt

2.5 Mean Temp - Dust

Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

2
10:00
Pixel Count

1.5

hours 1

0.5

0
33.5 34 34.5 35 35.5 36

Temperature (in °C)

5
10
3.5

Dust
3
Bonded Asphalt

2.5 Mean Temp - Dust

Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

11:30
2
Pixel Count

1.5

hours 1

0.5

0
58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66

Temperature (in °C)

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334 Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337

Table 5  IR images and histograms at different times of the day for grease-debonded and -bonded asphalt blocks
Time Raw IR image Histogram
5
10
3.5

Grease
3 Bonded Asphalt
Mean Temp - Grease
2.5 Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

02:30
2

Pixel Count
1.5

hours
1

0.5

0
26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29 29.5 30

Temperature (in °C)

5
10
3.5

Grease

Bonded Asphalt
3
Mean Temp - Grease
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

2.5

10:00 2

Pixel Count
hours
1.5

0.5

0
33 33.5 34 34.5 35 35.5 36

Temperature (in °C)

5
10
3.5

Grease
3
Bonded Asphalt
Mean Temp - Grease
2.5
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

2
11:30 Pixel Count
1.5

hours 1

0.5

0
58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66

Temperature (in °C)

lies in the temperature range of 67.2–71.0 °C, and bonded
asphalt block is around 66.5–69.5 °C. At around 15:00 h,
histograms for both of these again merge and the debonded
areas again go almost indistinguishable (thermal contrast
around 0.5 °C), as evident from Figs. 10 and 11.
Sometimes, at around 17:00  h, as observed from
Fig. 12a, b, the sand-debonded block lies in temperature
range of 45.5–47.7  °C whereas bonded asphalt block
around 47.0–48.7 °C. Since the intensity of solar radia-
tion reduces as the sun sets, debonded block rapidly starts
cooling, whereas bonded loses heat gradually. This can
be seen from darker grayscale image of sand than asphalt
block and their thermal contrast is found to be 1.25 °C,
lying in detectable range. The distributions again swap
their positions on x-axis as seen from Fig. 13. This trend
is observed to persist throughout the evening till the end
of the day.
The values for thermal contrast are observed to be the
largest for sand-debonded block, followed by dust along
wheel path, polythene, bentonite, and smallest for grease-
debonded block. This indicates that in this study, IRT can
detect debonding caused by sand more efficiently than the
other experimental debonding agents. The histograms for
grease overlap with those for bonded asphalt for most of
the duration and the values of thermal contrast for grease
are found to be the lowest. This implies that possibly
IRT will prove quite ineffective in detecting a debonding
caused by grease.
Debonded blocks other than sand block have been
observed to follow the same cyclic pattern of merging and
flipping over of the histograms. However, the interchange
time duration has been found to vary depending upon the
thermal properties of material used as debonding agent.
Table 3 summarizes this finding for all the cases. The least
thermal contrast values for grease can be verified by its
largest interchange durations. It can also be concluded that
sand-debonded block undergoes rapid thermal variation, as
seen through its shortest interchange durations and largest
thermal contrasts. Tables 4, 5, 6, and 7 present IR images
and histograms at few selected times for bond conditions
other than sand.
6 Conclusions
This study aims at assessing the potential of infrared
thermography technique to detect subsurface debonding
in asphalt pavement. The ideal time duration to inspect

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Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337 335

Table 6  IR images and histograms at different times of the day for polythene-debonded and -bonded asphalt blocks
Time Raw IR image Histogram
5
10
3.5

Polythene
3 Bonded Asphalt
Mean Temp - Polythene
2.5 Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

02:30
2

Pixel Count
1.5

hours
1

0.5

0
27.5 28 28.5 29 29.5 30

Temperature (in °C)

5
10
3.5

Polythene
3
Bonded Asphalt
Mean Temp - Polythene
2.5 Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

10:00 2

Pixel Count
1.5

hours 1

0.5

0
33.5 34 34.5 35 35.5 36

Temperature (in °C)

5
10
3.5

Polythene
3
Bonded Asphalt
2.5 Mean Temp - Polythene
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt
2
11:30
Pixel Count
1.5

hours 1

0.5

0
58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

Temperature (in °C)

asphalt pavements has also been estimated. To fulfil these
objectives, comprehensive infrared thermography testing
has been performed at every 30-min interval throughout
the day on an in situ asphalt pavement test section, con-
structed with various artificial debonding conditions. The
testing has been performed during clear sky condition, so
as to ensure proper heating of the section.
The thermal images show that the debonded areas are
identified through thermal imaging camera when their
thermal contrast with bonded area is greater than 0.5 °C.
Sand-debonded area has maximum thermal contrast,
mostly being greater than 0.5 °C and is clearly identifi-
able. However, during interchange time zone of day heat-
ing and night cooling, the debonded areas go unrecogniz-
able through the thermal imaging camera. These findings
have been quantitatively presented by a novel approach.
Analysis of these thermal images has been done using
MATLAB and comparative histograms for debonded and
bonded areas are plotted. The interchange time zones can
be seen as histograms merging with one another, and iden-
tifiable time zones as separate histograms with thermal
contrast greater than 0.5 °C. For this experiment under
mentioned conditions, the interchange time zone for sand
is 8:00–10:00 h in the morning and 14:30–15:30 h in the
afternoon. It can thus be concluded that the time after
evening to next morning is optimum to conduct thermo-
graphic inspection of asphalt pavements since sufficient
time gap is available between the two interchange dura-
tions. For other bonding conditions of partial bond, grease,
polythene and bentonite slurry, the interchange time dura-
tions are found to vary largely. For grease, this duration is
found to be as large as 5 h and thermal contrast as small as
0.002 °C. Thus, the available time durations for detection
of debonding caused by these agents are comparatively
lesser than that of sand, and such debonding is less likely
to be detected by thermal imaging camera. This proves that
the agent causing debonding highly influences the defect
detection based on its thermal conductivity. It would also
be interesting to study another case of debonding caused
by in situ deteriorated asphalt material and assess the suit-
ability of IRT for such cases, which is a very common
phenomenon occurring in the real-life situations.
The method suffers from inherent limitations that it could
not detect the depth of flaw location and is successful only
for shallow subsurface defects in asphalt pavements, up to
50 mm in this experiment, under mentioned conditions. It
has also failed to identify the underground buried objects.
Nevertheless, it is preferred in field inspection since it results
in saving labor costs and time in data collection. Since it is
an area technique, it quickly scans large areas. Also, it works

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336 Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (2019) 9:325–337

Table 7  IR images and histograms at different times of the day for bentonite slurry-debonded and -bonded asphalt blocks
Time Raw IR image Histogram
5
10
3.5

Bentonite Slurry
3 Bonded Asphalt
Mean Temp - Bentonite Slurry
2.5 Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

04:00
2

Pixel Count
1.5
hours
1

0.5

0
26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29

Temperature (in °C)

5
10
3.5

Bentonite Slurry
3
Bonded Asphalt

2.5 Mean Temp - Bentonite Slurry

Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

2
08:00

Pixel Count
1.5

hours 1

0.5

0
28.4 28.6 28.8 29 29.2 29.4 29.6 29.8 30 30.2 30.4

Temperature (in °C)

5
10
3.5

Bentonite Slurry
3
Bonded Asphalt
Mean Temp - Bentonite Slurry
2.5
Mean Temp - Bonded Asphalt

2
12:30
Pixel Count

1.5

hours
1

0.5

0
64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73

Temperature (in °C)

only on thermal radiations and the device itself does not emit Compliance with ethical standards 
any radiation, thus safe for environment.
Conflict of interest  The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interest.
7 Future scope

The future work may comprise of performing sensitivity

analysis by varying length and cross-sections of the test
blocks and observing the change in thermal contrast. Further
outcome of the proposed methodology can be enhanced by
performing tests at pavements with unknown bond condi-
tions so that analysis can capture uncertainty of location of
debonded area associated with exact extent of real defects.
The next stage of the study would incorporate the construc-
tion of another test block to simulate debonding due to
in situ deteriorated asphalt material and interesting findings
regarding the thermal contrast and interchange time dura-
tions for this case would be studied.
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