Technical Papers
May 18, 2012

Passive Thermographic Inspection of Adhered Ceramic Claddings: Limitation and Conditioning Factors

Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 27, Issue 6

Abstract

Adhered ceramic tiles are one of the most commonly used exterior cladding materials in Portugal. However, various durability problems are also noted by the researchers. A research study was therefore designed to identify in situ inspection techniques that can be used for detecting moisture-content increase and delamination problems of this type of cladding, and for this purpose 16 buildings in Lisbon were inspected by infrared (IR) thermography. In IR thermography, various factors affect data collection and interpretation and this may lead to false or questionable indications. Factors of this nature observed during the in situ passive thermographic inspection of these 16 buildings have been gathered and systematized to support the decision whether to use passive thermography in detecting moisture and delamination problems in an adhered ceramic cladding of a particular building, considering its characteristics. The factors observed were organized in two main groups associated with (1) the building/site inspected, and (2) IR thermography. Finally, an interaction matrix is proposed for the identification of the factors that can influence the execution of a thermographic inspection.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Building Physics group and Maria da Glória Gomes from IST, DE-Civil for the technical support and for allowing the use of IR equipment. The first author acknowledges the financial support provided by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) during the research study.

References

Arndt, R. W. (2010). “Square pulse thermography in frequency domain as adaptation of pulsed phase thermography for qualitative and quantitative applications in cultural heritage and civil engineering.” Infrared Phys. Technol., 53(4), 246–253.
ASTM. (2003). “Standard practice for thermographic inspection of insulation installations in envelope cavities of frame buildings.” C1060, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2009). “Standard terminology for nondestructive examinations.” E1316, ASTM, West Conshohocken, PA.
Avdelidis, N. P., Delegou, E. T., and Moropoulou, A. (2004). “A thermographic survey for the monitoring of moisture in porous stone.” Proc., 16th World Conf. on Non-Destructive Testing (WCNDT) 2004 (CD-ROM), Canadian Institute for Nondestructive Evaluation, ON, Canada.
Balaras, C. A., and Argiriou, A. A. (2002). “Infrared thermography for building diagnostics.” Energy Build., 34(2), 171–183.
Barreira, E., and de Freitas, V. (2007). “Evaluation of building materials using infrared thermography.” Construct. Build. Mater., 21(1), 218–224.
Bertil, P., and Bengt, A. (1980). Thermography—Testing of the thermal ınsulation and airtightness of buildings, Swedish Council for Building Research, Stockholm, Sweden.
Campante, E. (2002). “Durability of façades with ceramic covering—Why they fail.” Proc., 9th Int. Conf. on Durability of Building Materials and Components, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), VIC, Australia. 1–10.
Chew, M. L. (1998). “Assessing building façades using infra-red thermography.” Struct. Surv., 16(2), 81–86.
Chown, G. A., and Burn, K. N. (1983). “CBD-229. Thermographic identification of building enclosure effects and deficiencies.” 〈http://archive.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/irc/cbd/building-digest-229.html〉 (Sep. 17, 2013).
Clark, M. R., McCann, D. M., and Forde, M. (2003). “Application of infrared thermography to the non-destructive testing of concrete and masonry bridges.” NDT Int., 36(4), 265–275.
Edis, E., de Brito, J., and Flores-Colen, I. (2010). “Diagnosis of exterior wall failures by in-situ inspection techniques—Inspection of façades with adhered ceramic cladding—Preliminary report.” Institute of Engineering of Structures, Soil and Construction, UTL-ICIST DTC Rep. No. 06/2010, Technical Univ. of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
Edis, E., Flores-Colen, I., and de Brito, J. (2011). “Effect of the inspection conditions on the in-situ infrared thermographic examination of façades with adhered ceramic cladding.” Proc., 12th Int. Conf. of Durability and Building Materials and Components, Italian Society for Non-Destructive Testing and Monitoring Diagnostics, Brescia, Italy, 957–964.
European Committee for Standardization (CEN). (1998). “Thermal performance of buildings—Qualitative detection of thermal irregularities in building envelopes—Infrared method.” EN 13187, Eurocode, Brussels.
European Committee for Standardization (CEN). (2006). “Ceramic tiles—Definitions, classification, characteristics and marking.” EN 14411, Eurocode, Brussels.
Grinzato, E., et al. (2006). “Thermal NdE of FRP applied to civil structures.” Paper presented at the Quantitative Infrared Thermography (QIRT) Conference 2006, Padova, Italy. Université Laval, Québec City, QC, Canada. 〈http://qirt.gel.ulaval.ca/archives/qirt2006/papers/075.pdf〉 (Dec. 12, 2010).
Grinzato, E., Bison, P. G., and Marinetti, S. (2002). “Monitoring of ancient buildings by the thermal method.” J. Cult. Herit., 3(1), 21–29.
Grinzato, E., Vavilov, V., and Kauppinen, T. (1998). “Quantitative infrared thermography in buildings.” Energy Build., 29(1), 1–9.
Hung, Y. Y., et al. (2009). “Review and comparison of shearography and active thermography for nondestructive evaluation.” Mater. Sci. Eng., 64(5–6), 73–112.
Lerma, J. L., Cabrelles, M., and Portalés, C. (2011). “Multitemporal thermal analysis to detect moisture on building façade.” Construct. Build. Mater., 25(5), 2190–2197.
Lo, T. Y., and Choi, K. T. (2004). “Building defects diagnosis by infrared thermography.” Struct. Surv., 22(5), 259–263.
Magalhães, A. C., Matias, L., Vilhena, A., Veiga, M., and Santos, C. (2005). “Non-destructive testing for the assessment of moisture defects on ancient walls—Some case studies.” 8th Int. Conf. on Non-Destructive Investigations and Microanalysis for the Diagnostics and Conservation of the Cultural and Environmental Heritage, National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), Lisbon, Portugal, Series COM 115.
Maierhofer, Ch., et al. (2006). “Application of impulse-thermography for non-destructive assessment of concrete structures.” Cement Concr. Compos., 28(4), 393–401.
Maldague, X. P. V. (1993). Nondestructive evaluation of materials by infrared thermography, Springer, London.
Matias, L., Vilhena, A., Magalhães, A., Santos, C. P., and Veiga, R. (2008). “Performance of masonry specimens in contact with salt water—Absorption by capillary rise and evaporation phenomena.” Proc., 1st Int. Conf. on Construction Heritage in Coastal and Marine Environments (CD-ROM), National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), Lisbon, Portugal.
Meola, C., and Carlomangno, G. M. (2004). “Recent advances in the use of infrared thermography.” Meas. Sci. Technol., 15(9), R27–R58.
Paiva, J. V., Aguiar, J., and Pinho, A., eds. (2006). Technical guide of rehabilitation of housing, Vol. 2, National Institute of Habitation, Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), Lisbon, Portugal (in Portuguese).
Rosina, E. (2000). “Analysis of moisture for the preservation of frescoes at Malpaga Castle.” Proc., 15th World Conf. on Non-Destructive Testing (WCNDT) 2000, AGFA, Mortsel, Belgium.
Rosina, E., and Ludwig, N. (1999). “Optimal thermographic procedures for moisture analysis in building materials.” Proc., SPIE, 3827, 22–33.
Rosina, E., and Robison, E. C. (2002). “Applying infrared thermography to historic wood-framed buildings in North America.” APT Bull., 33(4), 37–44.
Rosina, E., and Spodek, J. (2003). “Using infrared thermography to detect moisture in historic masonry: A case study in Indiana.” APT Bull., 34(1), 11–16.
Santos, C. P., and Matias, L. (2002). “Application of thermography for moisture detection—A laboratory research study.” Proc., XXX Int. Association for Housing Science (IAHS), World Congress on Housing, Univ. of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, 1501–1506.
Santos, C. P., Matias, L., Magalhaes, A. C., and Veiga, M. R. (2003). “Application of thermography and ultra-sounds for wall anomalies diagnosis—A laboratory research study.” Int. Symp.—Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zerstörungsfreie Prüfung, Berlin.
Silvestre, J., and de Brito, J. (2009). “Ceramic tiling inspection system.” Construct. Build. Mater., 23(2), 653–658.
Sousa, A. V., de Freitas, V. P., and da Silva, J. R., eds. (2003). Manual of application of ceramic claddings, Portuguese Association of Ceramic Industry, Coimbra, Portugal (in Portuguese).
Vilhena, A., Matias, L., Magalhães, A., Santos, C. P., and Veiga, M. R. (2007). “Laboratory thermographic analysis of masonry specimens capillarity and drying.” Proc., 7th Int. Symp. on the Conservation of Monuments in the Mediterranean Basin, International Institute for Rivers and Heritage of the Univ. of Orléans, Orléans, France, 352–361.
Vollmer, M., and Möllmann, K.-P. (2010). Infrared thermal imaging—Fundamentals, research and applications, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim,Germany.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 27Issue 6December 2013
Pages: 737 - 747

History

Received: Nov 29, 2011
Accepted: May 16, 2012
Published online: May 18, 2012
Published in print: Dec 1, 2013

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Ecem Edis, Ph.D. [email protected]
Research Assistant, Istanbul Technical Univ., Faculty of Architecture, Taksim, Istanbul 34437, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]
Inês Flores-Colen, Ph.D. [email protected]
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical Univ. of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]
Jorge de Brito, Ph.D. [email protected]
Full Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical Univ. of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

Cited by

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share