In-situ emissivity measurement of construction materials

Infrared thermography is a non-destructive diagnostic technique used in the field of constructions as a method for reading of the existing heritage, and represents a model of knowledge of high reliability based on the measurement of physical parameters [1,2,3,4,5]. Quantitative information can be achieved once the target emissivity ? and the reflected temperature Tr are known. In this paper, a method to evaluate in-situ the emissivity of building materials is proposed. The measurement procedure is performed in two different steps: firstly, the emissivity values of reference labels are assessed in the laboratory by a dynamic test. Subsequently, the measurement of emissivity is done in situ, under controlled boundary conditions, using the reference labels to characterize the various building materials.The experimental results, in addition to providing information about the tested construction materials, confirm the need for a simple a reliable method to measure emissivity in-situ.