InfraRed Thermography presented as an innovative and non-destructive solution to quantify rock porosity in laboratory

This paper aims at reporting on the most recent outcomes of an innovative potential laboratory test (IRTest), which allows the indirect estimation of porosity of intact rock specimens through InfraRed Thermography. Starting from the positive preliminary available literature data, proving the existence of a relation between the cooling of previously heated rocks and their porosity, in this paper five different rock types, with a variable porosity grade (ranging from <10% to >40%), were tested according to an innovative procedure. After an initial heating phase, their cooling was monitored through InfraRed Thermography and the Cooling Rate Index (CRI) was calculated to describe their attitude during the heat dissipation. Such index proved well correlated to the porosity of tested specimens, which was preliminary calculated according to international standards. Achieved outcomes demonstrate that the cooling trend of rocks within the first 10 min of test (CRI10) represents a reliable index for the indirect quantification of such important physical parameter, thus proposing a wide range of ideas for further scientific researches aiming at implementing and validating the scientific casuistry on this new topic.