Infrared thermography can generate images of thermal anomalies in a structure or part, making it useful in a number of fields, including non-destructive testing (NDT) and, in particular, the inspection of composites, plastics, and certain metals. For metals, infrared thermography is a good alternative to other methods like penetrant testing (PT), commonly employed in the aeronautics industry. PT requires highly toxic substances, making it much more polluting than infrared thermography.

In research conducted under the CIVATHERM project run in partnership with the Bordeaux Institute of Mechanics and Engineering, List, a CEA Tech institute, developed the first-ever infrared thermography simulation module and integrated the module into its CIVA software. The module, called CIVA IT (Infrared Testing), leverages several thermal camera models and can rapidly generate thermograms comparable with those acquired in lab conditions. It can be used to simulate the inspection of flat, multi-layered materials containing heterogeneous areas.

Numerical and semi-analytical simulation tools are also under development, with the ultimate goal of adding new part geometries to the modules and diversifying the excitation sources. The initial results of induction thermography simulations were presented at the 2017 ENDE Workshop (https://www.ende2017.fr/).