Evaluation Of Infrared Thermographic Imaging For Environmental Applications

High-resolution infrared thermography is a fairly recent technique that has been<br>developed to investigate a wide number of mechanical, electrical, and structural<br>defects in equipment, structures, and soil. The equipment and technique have more<br>recently been modified by the engineering community to detect subsurface voids,<br>pipeline leaks, and buried utility line leaks. These methods have been successfully<br>used to determine the location of leaks, cracks, subsurface voids, and elevated<br>moisture content at a number of sites under a variety of conditions. However, this<br>technique has seen little use in the detection of buried waste, underground tanks, and<br>burial trenches in the environmental arena.<br>Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) recently conducted an environmental<br>characterization program using infrared thermography and other surface geophysical<br>techniques. The primary objective of the SNL testing and evaluation program was to<br>determine the efficacy of high-resolution infrared thermography to identify buried<br>wastes and objects under the real-world, field-scale conditions which may be<br>expected at hazardous, mixed, and radioactive waste landfill sites at SNL, and<br>elsewhere through the DOE complex. SNL completed an evaluation of this method at<br>a chemical and mixed waste landfill site. Results of the infrared thermography method<br>compare favorably with the known characteristics of the site and other non-invasive<br>geophysical techniques. Several undocumented burial sites were discovered during<br>the course of the infrared thermography investigation.