Susan Burrows
Penny
What got you interested in this area of science?
I got interested in this area of science, thermography, because it has a practical application.
How is the work you are currently doing relevant to everyday life?
This area of science is used in industry for the detection of flaws which can occur in items such as turbine blades, pipelines and composite materials.
What does your research hope to achieve?
The research hopes to provide a method of defect detection in environments which are hostile eg nuclear, since it can be done at a distance. By inputting a source of heat from either a laser or a flashlamp, a flow of heat through a sample will be disturbed by a defect, leading to contrast which can by identified by a thermal imaging camera.
Briefly, what does the image show?
The image shows heat being reflected from a coin. The thermal contrast shown by an imaging camera consists of both heat from the body of the sample plus any reflected heat from nearby objects. This test image shows the problems associated with a shiny surface which will reflect more heat, making the actual temperature of a sample difficult to measure.
