HRP20040136A2 - Method and device for thermographic testing on plastic materials of ship or boat hulls - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to the diagnosis of water inclusions and water vapor inclusions in the hulls of boats, that is, hulls (1) made of plastic material, especially in the hulls of ships, or hulls (1) made of artificial material, which is reinforced The invention basically has the task of preparing a procedure and accessories for a device that allows non-destructive testing of the inclusions of the moisture of the area of the hull of the boat, or of the hull, or their walls (1), and identify and localize the affected areas. by invention, this is achieved so. that the wall of the ship or boat (1) or superstructure be irradiated by means of suitable microwave antennas (3). The surfaces of the walls of ships or boats (1) that emit heat are covered by an infrared camera (5) and documented. This localizes the required areas of the hull where water inclusions have occurred.

Description

The invention in question belongs on the one hand to the technical field of shipbuilding, or boat building, and on the other hand to the technical field of non-destructive testing and analysis of materials for the presence of water or water vapor in their interior, or for diagnosing water inclusions and water vapor inclusions in artificial materials, especially with ship hulls made of artificial materials, or boat hulls made of artificial materials, which are reinforced with glass fibers.

Until now, there are no known non-destructive tests, i.e. diagnosing ship hulls, i.e. boat hulls, i.e. their walls that consist of artificial materials, preferably artificial materials made of polyester resins reinforced with glass fibers, with regard to the existence of water inclusions or water vapor inclusions as the consequences of the process of osmosis in keeping the hulls of watercraft in continuous contact with water, commonly referred to as "damaging osmosis". So far, no written materials for the discoveries in question have been presented.

The current diagnostic procedure is limited to examining the layers of the upper surface, so the hulls of ships or boats are inspected visually for bubbles created on the outer layer. It is also common for tests of this type to be carried out, in which the parts of the ship's hull likely to have been attacked by "osmosis" are excluded and these are then tested in the usual way for the presence of water. Furthermore, an attempt is made by drilling or without destruction to determine the humidity profiles in the hulls of ships or boats, or in the walls of ships or boats, and in this way to draw conclusions about the picture of damage by "osmosis" in the hulls of ships/boats. Using ultrasound, it is possible to establish in the usual way whether individual laminate layers have separated and at what length they have separated from each other. Regardless of the fact that in the majority of the mentioned tests destruction occurs on the ship's hull, which is again expensive to repair, in the last test procedure only the most serious damages can be found.

With the so far only possible non-destructive testing procedures using the currently common visual tests, i.e. using the measurement of spilled humidity, there remains a very high risk that the areas attacked by "osmosis" simply remain unrecognized, and thus the damage to the boat cannot be taken into account either. assessment, especially when ownership changes. With such products, it is of particular importance to maintain the high value of these products, because the consequences are great economic risks and eventual damages.

It is of extraordinary economic importance to actually know at one particular time what the real value of a boat, yacht, ship is, especially with the current hull made of artificial material.

Proceeding from the above, the basic task of the invention lies in the preparation of the establishment of the procedure and in the deployment of equipment, which enable the definition of non-destructive examination of the ship's hull, i.e. the boat's hull, i.e. their walls, for moisture inclusions, and the identification of the attacked places, and the more detailed determination of the places, both qualitatively and and quantitatively. The invention should therefore be able to assess the degree of damage to the ship's hull well enough and thus enable the evaluation of this product. It is in the special economic interest of the seller to determine the real value of such a valuable object. The same applies to the customer, who can especially avoid the risk of hidden damage and thus the risk of an unrecognized large loss of value.

This set task and set goal are solved in accordance with the invention with the help of the characteristic parts of patent claims 1 and 4. Other advantageous features and particularly advantageous forms of performance are obtained from each of the associated dependent patent claims.

The invention takes advantage of the knowledge, which is not new, that water molecules, due to their dipolar character, react to microwaves and thus, when they exist, just as easily whether it is water vapor or liquid, they reach an elevated temperature. This interrelation between means and effect is known and is used for drying materials, in this case by the active chain "heating-evaporation"-from the conduction of steam/-evaporation" of water components, but surprisingly, the professional world has not yet recognized, that this rise in water temperature, here of water inclusions or water vapor inclusions, can be used within the framework of the testing procedure, i.e. the non-destructive diagnosis procedure on ship hulls, i.e. boat hulls made of artificial materials, as an indicator for the stability of said inclusions. However, with this invention, and therefore only with an increase in temperature, exactly what was intensively sought is achieved. In the other part, where the compact material surrounds the part with water inclusions/water vapor inclusions, the temperatures remain unchanged, which is why the areas that do not contain water and the areas that do not contain water can be accurately localized that contain water, so these areas can therefore be recognized and documented with the help of ć processing with microwaves and with the help of further suitable means. If the materials found in the ship's hull, i.e. the boat's hull, i.e. in their walls are composite materials, and if their behavior when heated due to microwave irradiation is known or can be determined, this inventive technical solution can also be applied and lead to of the desired goal, since thereby the considerations of the differences that are within the scope of one part of this invention, in that part of the invention that deals with infrared thermography, are carried out.

In accordance with the proposed invention, first all parts of the device should be accurately positioned, especially one or more microwave antennas that are made in a suitable way, for example as transmitters that have the shape of a horn, preferably as flat antennas with an associated device for producing microwaves, i.e. a magnetron , which is also designated here as a microwave generator, and one or more infrared cameras, and it is necessary to ensure their subsequent repositioning. By choosing certain flat antennas, a homogeneous distribution of microwaves emitted over the entire surface is achieved, in a favorable way, over a wide area.

In accordance with the procedure, the determined total area of the ship's hull, that is, the hull of the boat, that is, their walls or superstructure, which should be examined by the technical staff performing the service, is divided into a suitable grid. The ship's hull/hull, i.e. the walls of the ship's hull/boat's hull or the superstructure, are marked on the determined raster areas in accordance with the raster by means of appropriate microwave antennas with microwaves located within the frequencies of the ISM-area, where the microwave power and irradiation time are determined in accordance with the type of material and thickness of the ship/boat wall or superstructure material. The raster surfaces are covered and documented using one or more infrared cameras for individual rasters. so that the temperature image is displayed. In this way, the required inclusions are made visible, in which there is a rise in temperature across the entire raster using infrared thermography, and this is documented, and then a further assessment can be undertaken that is not shown here.

The invention should be explained in more detail on the following embodiment example.

Figure 1 represents a device in accordance with the invention, and a ship's hull under test, which is made of artificial material 1, and which is located in a dock.

Example of performance:

First of all, it should be established that the technical procedure is also valid for localizing moisture inclusions in bodies made of artificial material that have a main part made of non-metal.

On some yachts (yachts with sails/motor yachts), diagnostics of its outer wall should be carried out, among other things. The areas of the ship's hull or the boat's hull, or the boat's wall, which are mainly in constant contact with water, possibly in occasional contact with water, are divided into the appropriate raster, which mainly depends on the possibility of placing the microwave antenna 3 that is applied. The source of microwaves, which is also designated here as the microwave generator (G) 2, is placed in position c and on and it is connected by means of a transmission cable 4 to the microwave antenna 3, which is placed at the beginning of the grid. In order to cover the localization and documentation of the subsequent possible heated areas on the boat wall 1, an infrared camera 5 is placed. The microwave source produces energetic microwaves which are further distributed by means of the aforementioned cables 4 to one or more microwave antennas 3, which are shown here as flat antennas. Using the measuring device for microwaves 6, during the operation of the generator (G), the microwaves 2 are examined and ensure that the corresponding limit values prescribed by law are maintained for the safety of the operation with microwaves and the surrounding area. The infrared camera 5 covers each of the provided areas of the raster and localizes the heated spots on the wall of the boat l, since the water was heated there due to the action of the microwaves, and the surrounding material retained its initial temperature also during the action of the microwaves.

In the case of possible knowledge of the behavior of the material of the boat's wall or its parts when heated under the influence of microwaves, this diagnostic procedure makes it possible to localize water inclusions by means of a differential assessment, and is therefore extremely suitable for assessing the formation of "osmosis damage in the hull of a synthetic material boat". This invention appears to be very advantageous also for diagnosing walls made of artificial material for water tanks, especially tanks made of polyester, since the inner sides of the walls of water tanks are "endangered by osmosis".

The knowledge gained from this invention can of course be advantageously applied elsewhere, where due to the constant or occasional presence of water, i.e. due to contact of water with surfaces made of synthetic material, especially surfaces made of polyester synthetic material, the creation of "image damage due to osmosis" may occur. .

Knowing the procedure for heating other polarizing liquids, such changes in transmission due to osmosis can also be advantageously applied to other objects or materials, i.e. in the presence of other polarizing liquids in testing devices and diagnostic devices, and in testing procedures and diagnostic procedures.

Claims (8)

1. The procedure for non-destructive testing of materials for ship hulls made of artificial material, i.e. for boat hulls made of artificial material, in order to qualitatively and quantitatively show that they contain water and/or include water vapor, indicated by the fact that the total the surface of the ship's hull or the boat's hull (1), which should be determined and tested, whereby their wall, possibly the superstructure, is divided into a suitable grid with corresponding grid surfaces, these determined grid surfaces are then irradiated one by one in the grid using a suitable microwave antennas (3) with microwaves, whereby the power of microwaves and the irradiation time are determined in accordance with the type of material and the thickness of the material of the ship's wall/boat's wall, i.e. the superstructure, individual areas of the grid that generate heat are captured and documented by grid using an infrared camera (5), in this way, the required inclusions become visible and in which the temperature rises re, over the entire raster with the help of infrared thermography and are documented over the entire raster and after that a further assessment is carried out. 2. The method according to patent claim 1, characterized in that one or more suitable microwave antennas (3) are used in accordance with the method. 3. The method according to patent claim 1, characterized in that one or more suitable infrared cameras (5) are used in accordance with the method. 4. A device for non-destructive material testing of ship hulls made of synthetic material, i.e. boat hulls made of synthetic material, for the purpose of qualitatively and quantitatively showing that they contain water and/or water vapor, indicated by the fact that the device which produces microwaves/magnetron/generator (G) (2) energetically connected to an antenna (3) radiating microwaves, which irradiate the hull of the boat (1) with microwaves, and which is equipped with an infrared camera (5) for the purpose of capturing the infrared radiation that emerges from the hull of the boat (1) due to the existing heated water molecules, with the infrared camera pointed at the hull of the boat (l). 5. Device according to patent claim 4, characterized by the fact that it is preferable that a flat antenna (3) with a homogeneous distribution of long-range microwaves radiating over the entire surface is provided as a microwave antenna (3), and this antenna is connected by means of an energy of the transmission cable (4) with the microwave generating device/magnetron/generator (G) (2). 6. Device according to patent claim 4, characterized in that the device contains one or more devices that produce microwaves/magnetrons/generators (G) (2). 7. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the device contains one or more microwave antennas (3). 8. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the device contains one or more infrared cameras (5).