Seyed Amir Saei Marand

Topic

Evaluating and Enhancing Temperature Measurement Accuracy of Drone-Based Infrared Thermography for Building Energy Assessment under Dynamic Environmental Conditions

Department of Civil Engineering

Date & location

• Friday, August 22, 2025

• 11:00 A.M.

• Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Phalguni Mukhopadhyaya, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)

• Dr. Milad Mahmoodzadeh, Department of Civil Engineering, UVic 

External Examiner

• Dr. Aaron Gulliver, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UVic 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Yin-Man Lam, Department of Anthropology, UVic 

Abstract

In response to rising global energy demands and the significant environmental impacts associated with buildings, enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of the built environment has become increasingly critical. Buildings represent a substantial portion of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions because of that there is a necessity for targeted energy conservation and efficiency strategies. Although considerable progress has been made in designing and constructing energy-efficient new structures, older existing buildings continue to present major challenges due to deterioration and material aging.

Infrared Thermography (IRT) is widely recognized as an effective, non-destructive method for assessing the thermal performance of buildings that provides insights about insulation quality, moisture intrusion, air leakage, and thermal bridging. Traditionally, IRT has been implemented using stationary setups; however, recent advancements have facilitated its integration with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Drone. UAV-based IRT offers significant benefits, such as rapid data collection, accessibility to difficult-to-reach areas, and the capability to dynamically capture thermal patterns across large façades and roofs.

Despite the rapid adoption and effectiveness of UAV-based dynamic IRT, comprehensive guidelines and a thorough understanding of operational practices, optimal configurations, and limitations remain incomplete. Previous literature has predominantly focused on stationary thermography, resulting in substantial knowledge gaps or challenges in the application of UAV-based thermal imaging for building diagnostics. One of the critical challenges is the significant uncertainty in temperature measurements recorded by infrared cameras under dynamic conditions, which limits the applicability of UAV-based IRT for quantitative analysis. In some cases, these errors have been observed to reach as high as 35°C. The main source of this discrepancy is attributed to the airflow generated by the UAV’s propellers, which disturbs the thermal readings of the camera during flight. To address this issue, this study introduces a solution involving a shielding mechanism designed to reduce wind-induced temperature drift. This shield was rigorously evaluated through a series of laboratory and field experiments. In the laboratory, its performance was tested across a range of ambient temperatures, while in the field, it was assessed under real dynamic survey conditions using different infrared cameras. The results demonstrated that the proposed shielding method effectively reduced temperature measurement errors from more than 35°C to less than 2°C during field operations, and to below 0.5°C in controlled lab environments.