Multiple shots averaging in laser flash measurement

• DOI: 10.1364/ao.389564
• Publication Date: 2020-04-28T18:00:09Z
• Authors: Giovanni Ferrarini; Alessandro Bortolin; Gianluca Cadelano; Lorenzo Finesso; Paolo Bison
• Keywords: nondestructive testing; thermal properties; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; General Works; ndt; thermal parameters; photothermal phenomena; A; photothermal phenomena; laser flash; thermal parameters; laser flash; measurement; thermal barrier coatings; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

The laser flash method is a well-known procedure to determine the thermal diffusivity of a wide range of materials. However, in some cases there is the need of limiting the input power, measuring materials with high thermal capacity, or investigating thick samples. These conditions lead to a reduction of the signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, we propose a new laser flash control and data acquisition system, that is able to repeat multiple times the emission of the laser impulse and the measurement of the thermal response of the specimen. With the average of several measurements, it is possible to obtain a decrease of the noise when working with low power inputs.