Abstract
This paper presents an infrared data processing developed to analyse the calorific manifestations accompanying elastoplastic transformation during tensile tests. The surface temperature images are provided by an experimental set-up essentially made of a testing machine coupled with an infrared camera equipped with a home-made numerizer. The `inverse' passage from temperatures to heat sources is detailed in the case of flat and thin parallelepipedic samples. The infrared image processing, based on Fourier’s techniques, was checked using spectral solutions of the heat equation in the case of realistic examples close to experiments. Numerical simulations are shown which attest coherence and efficiency of the method for several heat source distributions and different sets of noisy data. The method is then applied to experimental data files coming from tensile tests on mild steels at the room temperature. Sudden dissipative effects due to the propagation of the Lüders bands during the plastic plateau can be observed. Then, during the strain hardening, gradual and precocious concentrations of dissipation are shown; they herald the local necking of the sample. Finally, the interest of such experimental results is briefly discussed by referring to the specialised literature dealing with localisation phenomena and behaviour identification.