Detecting Air Leaks in Low Emissivity Enclosures

There is a need to find perforations in metallic enclosures, and these structures are composed of low emissivity surfaces. Business or government entities that perform quality assurance or compliance tests on their products often use stainless steel or aluminum test cells to house their testing procedures. Such tests require the enclosed and isolated environment to be totally controllable for temperature, pressure, moisture, and other proximal qualities. Leaks in the test cell will introduce unknown quantities of various factors such as gases, vapors, and other contaminants that prevent the required precise control. When leaks of substantial size occur, thermography provides the solution. A procedure has been developed by the author that will determine the locations of air leaks in a test cell made of metallic materials that are not painted and have a low emissivity value. A modern infrared imaging camera performs data acquisition for qualitative analysis. Two series of thermograms are acquired for each location under test.