Infrared thermography for spatiotemporal analysis of high-temperature oxidation dynamics in AISI 1045 steel

High-temperature steel oxidation is a critical industrial phenomenon where traditional assessment methods are often destructive and lack spatiotemporal resolution, making non-contact analysis via infrared thermography a promising alternative. This study presents a spatiotemporal methodology using high-resolution infrared thermography to analyze the oxidation of AISI 1045 steel during an isothermal cycle under Joule-effect heating. A local filter was used to extract regions of interest, and the sample was segmented longitudinally. For each section, thermal and heterogeneity-related features were extracted over time, including gradients, percentage of anomalous pixels, and frame-to-frame anomaly changes. During the transient heating stages, up to 60% of pixels were classified as local anomalies and peaks of 40% were observed in the state-change rate, whereas during the stable isothermal phase only 1%–5% of pixels changed, revealing continuous micro-dynamics such as oxide growth, spallation, or emissivity shifts. These effects were more evident in hotter regions, suggesting a temperature-dependent oxidation behavior. This approach offers a high-resolution, non-invasive framework to characterize oxidation kinetics with spatial–temporal detail, supporting real-time monitoring and predictive failure analysis in high-temperature materials. This methodology shows potential for real-time industrial process monitoring and early failure detection in thermal management systems. • Infrared thermography used to analyze oxidation behavior in AISI 1045 steel. • Thermal anomaly tracking enabled detection of localized surface dynamics. • Heterogeneity metrics revealed oxidation not captured by conventional methods. • Non-contact, high-resolution diagnostics for monitoring industrial processes.