This is a sort of morbid subject (or sick thinking?) We have had something, based on the odor, die in the wall, ceiling, or floor of one of our office trailers. Doesn't decomposition create heat and if so would it be even remotely possible to use IR to maybe pinpoint where this, what ever it is, has came to rest. I know this may be a crazy idea, but PEEEE UUUUUU !! the smell is horrible.

How about a dog, to at least narrow it down a bit?

Yes, theoretically this would be possible. Especially at the decomp stage. Provided the "body" was touching the inner wall area you may be able to find it via a thermal signature. We had a women call out consulting firm one year and ask if we could find her cat that they had mistakenly boarded up with new drywall. I had to explain to her that the only possible way I could helps was when it expired!

Roy,

I would contact the safety department. You are exposing yourself to health risks if something is decomposing. The safety group is responsible for ensuring you have a safe work environment.

I once had a class at the University of Tennessee on heat transfer as part of my engineering undergraduate work. One of the quizzes was to model the heat transfer through an object, where the student was asked to define the object.

One of the guys in the class got 100 on the quiz for defining the object as a dead body, and therefore the heat transfer would be zero as the body would be at ambient temperature!

Are we saying that his answer was incorrect?

Thanks!

Buddy Lee
President & CEO
MAARS, Inc.

Thanks to all replies. Found the culprit. used the "sniff and gag" method instead of IR. Turned out to be big gelatenous gob that I believe was formerly an oppossum between the vapor barrier and insulation under my bosses office (poor guy). Thank goodness we have an individual here with no sense of smell that could bag this "YUK BALL" up.

Roy, thanks for the follow up. Always neat to close the loop on threads - helps everybody learn.
Buddy. Maybe the main body of interest is dead. But there may be other critters in or around it. Where there's mass there's energy, and there are various ways to convert energy to heat. Nuff said - no need to go farther along the "morbid trail".

I agree the body need not generate heat to affect the heat transfer or temperature profile.

Let's say we have a 12" deep air-filled void in the wall. The body fills part of it. It's wintertime in Chicago.... -20F outside and 68F inside.

The heat transfer coefficient of water (and presumably recently-dead bodies) is roughly 20x as high as that of air. Looking from the outside we would expect to see a warmer spot in the area of the body because it is conducting more heat from the inside (even though the body is not generating any of its own heat). A full analysis might be more complicated (is air convection changed by the body) but just trying to illustrate the point.

Reading Roy G's comment on "sniff n gag". Reminds me of the time this frontline supervisor I have right now...when he first started to work here a few years ago, him being young n full of pss-n-vinegar, over eager, yatta yatta, well one day he really ticked me off trying to be an intellectual property thief "overheard a solution to a problem then claimed to the boss it was his idea"

...I buy these redi-made caesar salads that have "PARMESEAN CHEESE" packets in them. Heh heh, I took a pkg and sprinkled it on the floor under his desk where he leaves his workboots. The floor tile is white, the cheese is white...cranked the heat in his office over the weekend and come monday morning...
...gag me with a spoon! The stench was quite satisfying for me.

Everyone who walks by his room would give him hell for "stinky feet"
I kept the stinky cheese trick up for a few weeks then I stopped. The bonehead never did figure it out.