Introduction. Optimising agricultural water use implies thecombination of physiological, technological and engineering techniques, especially thosefor continuously monitoring the water status of plants subjected to deficit irrigation. Amethodology to estimate water stress of young almond trees from thermal images wasdeveloped based on assessing the physiological status of almond crops under limitedwater-supply conditions. Materials and methods. Two irrigation treatmentswere tested during the maximum evapotranspirative demand period (214th to the 243rd day ofthe year) in an experimental almond [Prunus dulcis (Mill) D.A. Webb, cv.Guara] orchard: a low-frequency deficit irrigation (LFDI) treatment, irrigated accordingto the plant-water status, and a fully irrigated treatment (C100) at 100% of cropevapotranspiration. Daily canopy temperature at midday (TC) was measured with an infraredcamera, together with standard measurements of stem-water potential (ΨStem) and stomatalconductance (gS). The time course of these parameters and their relationships wereanalysed. Results and discussion. The time course of the parameters studiedshowed highly significant correlations among the differentials of canopy-air temperature(ΔT), ΨStem and gS. The methodological protocol for analysing thermal images allowed atime saving in processing information and additionally offered the possibility ofestimating the ΨStem and gS values. Conclusion. Our results confirm thatinfrared thermography is a suitable technique for assessing the crop-water status and canbe used as an important step towards automated plant-water stress management in almondorchards.

This paper is based on additional treatments of the experimental results obtained by L. Bodelot, L. Sabatier, E. Charkaluk, P. Dufrénoy [Experimental setup for fully coupled kinematic and thermal measurements at the microstructure scale of an AISI 316l steel, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 501 (2009) 52–60]. In order to perform inter- and intragranular thermomechanical analyses in a metallic polycrystal at the grain scale, a crystallography-based projection technique of the thermal and displacement fields on a polynomial basis is proposed. It enables intragranular coupled analysis of strain and temperature full-field data consistent with the plastic slip activation observed on specimen surface after the test.

Cette étude expérimentale présente l’étude du comportement mécanique d’un polyamide 66(PA66) renforcé par des fibres de verre courtes fréquemment utilisées dans l’industrieautomobile. Afin d’étudier l’influence de la teneur en humidité, de la quantité de fibresde verre introduite dans la matrice et de la vitesse de déplacement, une série d’essais detraction a été réalisée sur du polyamide renforcé ou non avec des fibres de verre courtesà différents fractions volumiques : 10, 20 et 30 wt%. Les résultats montrent la dépendancedu matériau aux différents paramètres cités précédemment. La technique de thermographieinfrarouge (IR) a été utilisée pour déterminer l’évolution de la température à la surfacedes matériaux au cours des essais de traction. Un processus de localisation de ladissipation thermique a pu être identifié à partir des images thermiques.

The present paper is concerned with the thermoelectric behaviour of CFRP compositesamples subjected to DC currents in view of developing experimental and modelling toolsfor the characterisation of the thermo-electro-mechanical behaviour of composite materialsfor aircraft applications. DC currents up to 8 A are injected through the specimens endsides by employing several different electrode techniques whose performances are assessedand compared. Sample and electrode contact resistances are measured for different valuesof the injected current. The transient and permanent temperatures fields promoted by theinjected currents are experimentally measured by infrared thermography. The temperaturefields are simulated numerically by a thermoelectric coupled model employing theABAQUS®FE commercial code; temperatures can be also approximately calculated by a simple lumpedparameter model discarding thermal conduction. The comparison between simulations by themodels and measurements allows employing the simplified model as a tool to designthermo-electro-mechanical tests.

The present study deals with the thermal behavior of an electric motor used in navalpropulsion. A permanent three-dimensional model based on a nodal approach was developed topredict the thermal behavior of the machine in permanent state. The various heat transfermodes playing a role (mainly the conduction, the convection and the mass transfer) aretaken into account. The three dimensional developed model provides information (in termsof heat fluxes or temperatures) for the whole machine. A parametric study using this modelis carried out aiming at two objectives. The first one consists in an evaluation of theinfluence of several factors on the temperature distribution. The second one aims atobtaining the inception of the thermal optimization and evaluating the more efficientcooling techniques or solutions.