Performance anxiety is a common issue among musicians, and it could be fundamental to monitor their psychophysiological states during performances through non-invasive methods to support them in managing anxiety. Hence, infrared thermography (IRT) could be a valuable tool for this purpose. The study aims to assess whether IRT can effectively monitor musicians' psychophysiological states. The facial temperature of four musicians was recorded during two conditions: rehearsal and live performance. The temperature time course was extracted from 3 regions of interest (ROIS) (i.e., forehead, nose tip, and perioral) and the following metrics were computed: skewness, kurtosis, and sample entropy. Moreover, machine learning models were applied to evaluate the presence of stress and the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. The results showed notable changes in thermal metrics in all the ROIs. Moreover, the prevalence of the sympathetic system for 50% of the rehearsal and 92% of the live performance durations was assessed. Additionally, the presence of elevated stress indicators was assessed for 6% of the duration of the rehearsals and 9% for the live performances. These results demonstrated the capability of IRT to assess modifications of the psychophysiological state of the musicians secondary to the condition of the performance.

Solar Loading Thermography (SLT) has significant advantages in assessing the condition of large structures, particularly for heritage conservation. This technique uses the Solar Loading to detect thermal anomalies on the surface of materials, which may indicate hidden defects or degradation. This study presents a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the structural integrity of wooden columns by integrating infrared non-destructive testing (NDT) under solar loading with digital twin modeling and finite element simulation. The approach utilizes infrared thermography to detect the potential defects, such as soft rot. These anomalies are processed to extract defect contours, which are simplified into geometric shapes to represent the degradation of the material’s elastic modulus. Environmental factors, including wind speed, humidity, and precipitation, are incorporated into the simulation. Wind speed is applied as a loading on the entire ancient wooden structure, with adjustments made based on the column's specific location within the structure, while humidity and precipitation gradients are modeled to simulate their impact on the mechanical properties of the wood. Basic loading parameters, such as bending moments and axial pressure, are manually input into the model, which is then used in the finite element simulation to compute the internal stress distribution within the column. The material properties in the finite element model are dynamically adjusted according to moisture-induced degradation, and the resulting stress distribution is computed in real-time. The 3D stress and deformation distributions are visualized interactively, allowing for detailed inspection of the column’s condition and defect behavior. The system further evaluates the safety of the ancient wooden structure by comparing the computed stress values with established strength theories, providing a safety evaluation indicating whether the defect poses a significant structural risk. This method represents a significant advancement in the preservation and maintenance of heritage wooden structures, as it combines SLT, digital twin modeling, and real-time finite element simulation to enable more accurate and predictive evaluations of ancient wooden structure.

Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) (Grant n. PGR02110), and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) through the National Key Research and Development Program (2023YFE0197800).

An increase in the use of composite materials, owing to improved design and fabrication processes, has led to cost reductions in many industries. Resistance to corrosion, high specific strength, and stiffness are just a few of their many attractive properties. However, damage tolerance remains a major concern in the implementation of composites and uncertainty regarding component lifetimes can lead to over-design and under-use of such materials. A combination of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) have shown promise in improving confidence by enabling data collection in-situ and in real time. In this work, infrared thermography (IRT) is employed for NDE of tubular composite specimens before and after impact. Four samples are impacted with energies of 5 J, 7.5 J, and 10 J by an un-instrumented falling weight set-up. Acoustic emissions (AE) are monitored using bonded piezoelectric sensors during one of the four impact tests. IRT data is used to generate diffusivity and thermal depth mappings of each sample using the thermographic signal reconstruction (TSR) red green blue (RGB) projection technique. Analysis of AE data alone for a 10 J impact suggest significant damage to the fibres and matrix; this is in good agreement with the generated thermal depth mappings for each sample, which indicate damage through multiple fibre layers. IRT and AE data are correlated and validated by optical micrographs taken along the cross section of damage.

This work concerns thermomechanical behavior of two Ni-free Ti-based shape memory alloys (SMAs) doped with nitrogen and oxygen subjected to tensile loading at strain rate of around
0.02 1/s. During the experiments, an infrared camara was used to investigate thermal effects accompanying deformation of the Ti–25Nb–0.5O and Ti–25Nb–0.5N SMAs. Simultaneously, digital image correlation (DIC) served to determine kinematic fields of these alloys in tension. The stress or temperature-induced martensitic transformation from the cubic β phase to the orthorhombic α″ phase is responsible for superelasticity or shape memory effect in the Ni-free Ti-based SMAs [1]. However, the addition of the oxygen and nitrogen interstitials changes tensile characteristics of these SMAs. For instance, the Ti–25Nb SMA exhibits shape memory effect and a Lüders-type deformation [2]. However, stress-strain plots of the Ti–25Nb–0.5O and Ti–25Nb–0.5N SMAs show hysteretic behaviors characterized by superelasticity combined with an increased transformation stress. Our results show that infrared thermography is a useful tool to locally track peculiar temperature changes of these Ni-free Ti-based SMAs. The temperature fields captured at selected stages of loading revealed heat sources associated with the dissipative processes. The thermal effects were discussed in view of the kinematic characteristics obtained using DIC as well as microstructural features and phase content analyses of the SMAs.

The properties of long-wave infrared (LWIR) interband cascade photodetectors (ICIPs) with type II superlattices (T2SLs) and gallium-free (Ga-free) InAs/InAsSb absorbers were determined using photoluminescence (PL) and spectral response (SR) measurements. The heterostructures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on a GaAs substrate. Three structures with different numbers of stages were compared. The structures were optimized for 10.7 μm at 300 K. Moreover, theoretical calculations were performed using APSYS to compare with the experimental results. The PL results provided information on transitions from minibands and intragap states in the studied structures. SR measurements helped isolate transitions involving minibands, which facilitated the analysis of visible transitions in the PL spectra, where point defect (NPD) transitions were also observed.