Non-destructive evaluation of brazed joints between cooling tube and heat sink by IR thermography and its verification using FE analysis

A non-destructive testing (NDT) and evaluation technique for the assessment of defects in brazed joints is presented in this paper. It is based on the analysis of infrared thermography (IRT) images, which produces two-dimensional temperature fingerprints to qualitatively see the invisible defects. This feature is fruitfully exploited to detect the significant faults in the brazed joints between the cooling tube and heat sink of the plasma facing components (PFC). Three-dimensional finite element (FE) analyses have been performed to simulate the brazing defects. Additional investigations like non-destructive radiographic test also confirms the experimental observations obtained from IRT.