Thermal modeling and imaging of as-built vehicle components

This paper addresses the issue of thermal modeling of vehicle components where the 3D models of the components are not traditional CAD models derived from engineering drawings but are models derived from 3D-imaging scans of existing real-world objects. A "reverse engineering" pipeline is presented that uses 3D scanners to capture the geometry of an existing object from different views and then integrates these multiple views into a single 3D surface mesh description of the object. This process requires no a priori CAD drawings of the object and thus enables modeling in situations where the original manufacturer no longer exists or soldiers have made undocumented field modifications. The paper further discusses the use of these generated 3D models to simulate thermal imaging properties of the object using the Multi Service Electro-Optic Signature (MuSES) software. Thus, given an object of interest, this paper explores, first generating a 3D model of the object and, second, analyzing the thermal signature through simulation. As a third step, this paper investigates the experimental achievability and limitations of thermal image simulation of vehicle components.