ITC InfraMation - October 2003

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October 2003

Volume 4, Issue 10

In This Issue:

Welcome

IR in the News
InfraMation Conference Coming Up Soon
Using IR to Diagnose Building Conditions
Letters to the Editor
ITC adds Building Sciences Course
Brainteaser of the Month
Last Month's Brainteaser
Past Issues
Upcoming Classes
About the ITC

See the Conference Agenda

View the
Conference Video

Paper Titles and abstracts for 2003

Greetings {{user("firstname")}},

Needless to say we are very busy making the final preparations for the InfraMation Thermographer's Conference coming up in just 12 days. We have over 250 delegates registered making this InfraMation the largest IR conference ever held! If you haven't registered yet, please do so soon to secure your spot.

The month's issue focuses on IR use in building science studies. These studies go beyond identifying insulation voids and air infiltration and exfiltration. Read all about them in Using IR to Diagnose Building Conditions and check out our new course in ITC adds Building Sciences Course . Please note that there are several papers on these same topics at InfraMation this year as well.

And we have a honey of a Brainteaser for you at Brainteaser of the Month.

If you want to save this newsletter for viewing off line in your computer, just go to the web page using your browser and select File....Save As or save this email page as html in your email software.

See you in Las Vegas,

Gary Orlove,
Editor and Publisher

IR in the News [top]

A moldy but a goody By Art Lawler
Athens Daily Review, TX - Sep 29, 2003
... This was accomplished through the use of infrared thermography technology, which identified exactly where the roof problems were -- not only on the courthouse ...
NASA Seeks Ways to Inspect Shuttle Wing Panels at KSC
Space.com - Sep 27, 2003
... The techniques that show the most promise are ultrasound and thermography, the latter of which employs infrared imaging devices to spot hidden flaws. ...
Farmers' hero: It's a moth-eating bat, man
Corpus Christi Caller Times, TX - Sep 27, 2003
... Weather satellites and thermal imaging cameras along with other sophisticated computer programs will be used to take pictures of the clouds of bats that fly ...
Controversial Anti-Terror Tools Coming to Airports
WTEV, FL - Sep 25, 2003
... country. The cameras would be equipped with thermal imaging devices and software to identify certain types of ships, Bohnsack said. ...
New candid cameras to put the heat on terrorists
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - Sep 17, 2003
Terrorists trying to sabotage the Sydney Harbour Bridge under cover of darkness could be foiled by new state-of-the-art thermal imaging cameras that can see in ...
Seeing the invisible
Christian Science Monitor - Aug 26, 2003
The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is designed to see the invisible and tell us more about the universe. What it actually "sees" is infrared radiation that we can't detect with the human eye. This is just one way scientists are exploring the universe and what's on Earth using infrared radiation.

InfraMation Conference - Less than Two Weeks Away! [top]

The InfraMation Thermographer's Conference is less than two weeks away! Make your reservation now to join us at the largest IR thermography conference ever held, we are expecting a record breaking turnout.

Using IR to Diagnose Building Conditions [top]

By Leonard A. Phillips, Senior Writer for Infrared Applications, FLIR Systems

Infrared (IR) thermographic inspection is a powerful and noninvasive means of monitoring and diagnosing the condition of buildings. IR cameras provide immediate documentation of as-built or post-restoration quality, post-casualty cause and origin data, plumbing and building envelope water leakage, post-flood and fire water-damaged material assessment, energy use inefficiency, and electrical problems.

ADVANTAGES OF IR FOR BUILDING DIAGNOSIS

Trace hard-to-find moisture sources quickly and easily.
Inspect with minimal building disassembly.
Minimize disturbance of tenants.
Capture thermographic images instantly.
Output full-motion infrared video records in real-time
Create reports of inspection results in seconds.
Select agencies and trades for restorationand repair with speed and assurance.
Protect against frivolous complaints.
Provide the basis for fair settlements.

Moisture and Mold

Moisture in building materials can destroy structural integrity and nurture mold and insect infestations. IR cameras distinguish between wet and dry materials by exploiting the thermal characteristic of wet materials to store heat very well and warm up or cool down more slowly than dry materials. Grades of water can vary from clear to black-river water (see table).

The thermogram (right) clearly shows a leaking bedroom ceiling (visible, left). The leak was assumed by the owner to originate in an upstairs marble-paneled bathroom in the $3 million home. The estimated cost to rip out and replace the marble to access the plumbing was estimated at $80,000! Further IR investigation absolved the bathroom and traced the source of the leak to a clogged weep hole under the threshold of a door leading to an upstairs porch.

GRADES OF WATER

Clear
Gray-contains bacteria and other microbial growth
Black-river water, flooding, herbicide content, microbial content

For the first 72 hours, Clear grade water loss remains "Clear", but after that, it can become "Gray" with growth of bacteria and fungus. If untreated for several more days, it can downgrade to black water
Moisture must be evaluated on a daily basis, and no less than every 2 days until dry. Last IR thermograph must show NO thermal anomalies.
Wet drywall has been found to be about 6ºF cooler than dry drywall due to evaporative cooling.

Mold in particular is a growing concern for lenders, developers, producers of building materials, and building owners and investors because of the growing number of filings of health-related tort claims. In a nutshell, all mold is bad; some mold is worse (see table). Certain molds can cause a variety of adverse human health effects. Mold requires moisture to grow. It stops growing when dry, but health issues remain. The actual presence and identification of specific types of mold requires further investigation beyond thermography, including visual inspection and laboratory cultures.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF MOLD AND THEIR ASSOCIATED MOISTURE REGIMES

Black mold, Stachybotrys chartarum (atra) is a toxic fungus that occurs widely in North America, but is uncommon in homes. It can cause pulmonary hemorrhage (PH). It requires water-soaked cellulose (wood, paper, and cotton products) to grow -- typically from flooding, serious plumbing problems, or roof leaks -- and takes about two weeks to start amplifying. While wet it looks black and slimy perhaps with white edges; when dry it looks less shiny.
Penicillium grows in damp, but not wet conditions. Some species produce toxins and may render food inedible or even dangerous. It is a good practice to discard foods showing the development of any mold. On the other hand some species of Penicillium are beneficial to humans. Cheeses such as Roquefort, Brie, Camembert, Stilton, etc. are ripened with species of Penicillium and are quite safe to eat. The drug penicillin is produced by Penicillium chrysogenum, a commonly occurring mold in most homes.
Aspergillus refers to a group of mold fungi which are found world-wide and are especially known for decaying fruit and vegetables. They are very common in the autumn and winter in the Northern hemisphere. Only a few of these molds can cause illness in humans and animals, and fortunately most healthy people are naturally immune to its effects. The most problematic varieties are Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus, and Aspergillus flavus. The mold can cause allergic reactions in the bronchia and lungs, grow in the lungs and sinuses, and become invasive in immunosupressed people. However, most healthy people do not develop disease caused by Aspergillus.

The first step in mold remediation is to quickly and accurately locate and remove all sources of moisture. IR cameras can instantly image entire rooms, inspect places that can’t be physically reached with moisture meters, reveal wet conditions behind surfaces such as enameled walls and wallpaper that don’t readily water stain, track leaks to their source, monitor the drying process, and confirm when a structure is dry.

Post-disaster “Cause and Origin” investigations

To a building owner or an insurance company involved in a property damage settlement, clear images of normally invisible diagnostic evidence can be invaluable for planning the restoration effort and rationalizing settlements. After fires, IR cameras can quickly locate remnant hot spots, providing potentially valuable data for insurance companies’ Cause and Origin investigations — and assure that a fire is truly extinguished. For catastrophic storm water intrusion and plumbing failures, IR thermography can trace the influx of moisture to find the ultimate source of the incursion with little or no physical disassembly of the premises and minimal disturbance of inhabitants.

This thermogram dramatically reveals the general manager of a garment dying facility leaning toward a 32 gallon drum demonstrating a dramatic level of heat being generated by the exothermic reaction of sodium hydrosulfite and water. The property manager immediately summoned an industrial hygienist, who summoned the authorities.

During remediation and restoration, IR thermography can evaluate the progress of the drying process per accepted standards. The availability of authoritative thermographic records can reduce or even eliminate the need for insurance representatives to make personal on-site inspections, and the thermographic record of the remediated property can protect against future frivolous claims.

Energy efficiency

IR thermography is a well-accepted method of imaging and evaluating the state of electrical wiring, the thermal efficiency of building insulation, doors, windows and other penetrations, and the efficiency and condition of heating and cooling systems. Temperature anomalies revealing problems are rendered visible, enabling needed repairs to be made with confidence.

Cameras and software for building inspections

IR cameras used for building inspections should provide both still and full-motion video thermographic images. Especially in flood and post-fire situations, infrared video is a real timesaver, as walk-through inspections in inhospitable environments can be done quickly and the results thoroughly and conveniently analyzed later. To handle video, the IR camera must have fast (60 Hz is good) scanning speed and standard video output. Interchangeable lenses are highly desirable to accommodate all the working distances and target sizes you will encounter. Wide-angle is great for fast scanning and close-up situations; longer-focus may be necessary to accommodate small spot size targets at greater distances.

The thermogram of this vinyl-sided 3-floor apartment house clearly shows the path of a serious leak from a washing machine on the third floor, which is completely hidden within the wall. The thermographer used FLIR’s Image Builder software to automatically "stitch" the three individual thermographs into one fully radiometric collage.

Software is key to generate reports quickly. Images in standard file formats such as .jpg and .gif can be inserted into Microsoft® Word. But dedicated software timesavers can shorten the report-generation process. Image mosaicing or stitching software uniquely knit multiple thermographic images together to create a single composite image that can facilitate diagnosis and repair.

Letter's to the Editor [top]

RE: Joe DeMonte "Home Electric Panel"

One of my infrared camera sales was on the price difference between copper bus bar and aluminum bus bar for a plant upgrade. The customer bought the aluminum and an infrared camera to monitor the aluminum bus.

In the mid 70's I also owned a late 1960's mobile home with aluminum wiring that the wiring to the bathroom light switch kept loosening up about every 6 months and you could hear it arcing. There are thermal conductive pastes that you put in the connection to try to prevent this, but if they didn't do this during the first assembly...
The problem is once a material (the aluminum wire) has heated past its elastic memory it shrinks to a new smaller diameter when it cools, this then creates an arcing gap.
Tightening the connection is a temporary fix, come back and check it in 6 months or less and it will be loose and arcing again.

This can also be seen today on electric utility lines where they have a single strand wire from the power line to the surge arrestor, the first lightening surge causes memory loss of the single strand conductor, the arcing is too small to see with an infrared camera but the UV light from the arcing stands out with a daylight corona camera like the CoroCAM 4+. A local electric utility even found a broken single strand conductor that was arcing and causing radio-TV interference for a 1 mile radius. Using his pickup truck AM radio he drove until he heard the sound, then pulled out the CoroCAM 4+ and looked down the line and he could see exactly what he had been chasing with ultrasound and RFI equipment for months. He said the signal was too strong for the ultrasound and RFI and it is too small for infrared.

- Dan Ninedorf, Specialized Camera Sales

ITC adds Building Sciences Course [top]

By Ron Lucier, ITC Course Moderator

When I first became involved in infrared thermography (early 1980’s) the primary applications were in analyzing buildings for heat loss. The primary force pushing the buildings applications were the after effects of the energy crisis in the 1970’s. I actually grew up in a house in Massachusetts that did not have insulated walls (it was built in 1690). As infrared thermography matured in the succeeding years more focus was being placed on Condition Based maintenance (CBM) applications than buildings here in the USA. Europe continued to refine its building sciences techniques as well as embracing the CBM applications. Over the past year or so we have noted that it was time to discover building sciences thermography again for the first time!

One of the driving issues here was the sudden interest in locating wet building materials that may lead to mold growth. In Central Massachusetts there were over two dozen schools that did not open on time due to, in some cases, mold growing on the teacher’s desk (or was that an old baloney sandwich?) Mold is a major contributor to the “Sick Building Syndrome” and is the reason for many Workmen’s Compensation cases (and lots of litigation).

Rather than read what has already been written we have collaborated with several industry leading experts in water damage, construction defects and mold. Bill Weber and Scott Wood of Four Star Restoration and Cleaning in Fremont along with Mike Eggman of Certified Restoration Consultants have contributed a tremendous amount of technical information, images and case studies utilizing FLIR infrared cameras in their field. The result of this effort was the first Building Sciences Thermography course that was held in August in Fremont, CA. Based on the course reviews and unsolicited calls to FLIR Sales management, we have a winner!

Mike Eggman, a trial qualified Expert Witness, explains different building construction methods to the class.

The course isn’t what you might think it would be. When we polled some students they reluctant to sit in a class for 3 ½ days listening to other peoples successes (applications based training). Our students demanded an in depth approach into the “Why” and “What” as opposed to the “How”.

The course reviews basic infrared theory and heat transfer processes encountered in buildings on day 1. The rest of the course is devoted to construction methods (residential and commercial), parts of buildings, construction defects, landscaping, water damage and the sources of water in a building, mold growth and associated testing and remediation efforts. Case studies are presented in each section tying the details presented to reality.

All of our students passed a very rigorous 50 question test. Many have prepared their field assignments and sent them in for grading. As I am on the road (again!) as I write this, I have a big task in reviewing them when I get back.

We have scheduled numerous Buildings Courses next year and plan on keeping the team intact to bring a new approach to an (m)old application! Hope to see you in one of our classes soon!

Brainteaser of the Month [top]

Here is this month's brainteaser. First reader to email me with the correct explanation of the thermogram receives a gift from ITC. Please put "Brainteaser" as the subject of the message.

Click here to email your guess

Do you have an interesting image that you think would stump other thermographers? If so please email me your image (preferably in native .img, .jpg, .tif, .tgw, or .tmw format) with an accompanying visible photo and explanation. If your image is used, you receive a gift as well.

Last Month's Brainteaser [top]

IR Thermogram Visible Image

Our winner for last month's Brainteaser is Bill West from the Rimkus Consulting Group in Houston, Texas. Bill not only guessed this was the inside of a rotary kiln showing the main burner pipe, he even told me the direction of rotation (clockwise based on the position of the product bed)! Good sleuthing Bill!

Thanks to Gerry Doucet of Weldwood of Canada for the thermograms. Here is Gerry's explanation of the images:

"The survey of a lime kiln burner was performed with a ThermaCAM PM 390 camera using a 3.9 µm flame filter and a wide angle 32 deg lens with attached heat shield. Transmittance of heat shield set at a calculated value of 84%. Emissivity was left at 1.0 .

The survey was requested to make sure that the flame was straight and not directed onto the refractory of the kiln, ensuring proper constant heat flow towards the feed end of the kiln and reducing any hotspot potential on the metal shell of the kiln.

As the kiln rotates the product tends to rise up and fall back to its gravitational center at the bottom of the kiln. In doing so at the level of the burner nozzle, air turbulence is created. Hence a pulsing of the hot gasses of the flame as the gas combusts can be seen at the nozzle. This pulsing of the thermal profile of the flame could give one the wrong impression as to the direction of the flame when viewing the thermal image. However the visual image gives us a true indication as to where the flame is located."

Bill and Gerry each receive our special low emissivity traveling coffee mug for their guess and contribution respectively.

Past Issues [top]

Click the links below to view past issues of this newsletter:

All past issues from February 2000 through October 2002

Upcoming Classes [top]

Click the links below to see our latest course calendars (in local language).

Americas - Level I

Americas - Level II

Americas - Application, Level III, R&D

About the Infrared Training Center [top]

The Infrared Training Center offers training and certification in all aspects of infrared thermography use. Our world-class training facilities are located near Boston, Massachusetts, USA and Stockholm, Sweden and have the world's most extensive hands on laboratories for infrared applications. Please join us in exploring the fascinating world of the infrared!

Your comments and suggestions about this newsletter are welcomed and encouraged. If you have an interesting application or case study to share, we encourage you to submit it for publication. Published articles earn credit towards recertification.

Please e-mail Gary Orlove or send regular mail to the Americas office.

Visit our website:

ITC Americas, BOSTON

16 Esquire Road
N. Billerica, MA 01862, USA

Tel: +1-978-901-8405
Toll free: +1-866-TRAINIR
(866-872-4647)
Fax: +1.978.901-8832
E-mail: mailto:info_us@infraredtraining.com

ITC Eurasia, SWEDEN

Rinkebyvägen 19
SE-182 11 Danderyd, Sweden

Tel: +46 (0) 8 753 25 00
Fax: +46 (0) 8 753 26 01
E-mail: mailto:itc@flir.se

THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. The Infrared Training Center newsletter may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1. All text and images must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2. All copies must contain the Infrared Training Center copyright notice and any other notices provided therein;
3. This document may not be distributed for profit

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