The studies in recent years show that solid materials such as rock and concrete always have regular thermal infrared (TIR) characteristics when the solid samples are loaded, and the anomalous IR phenomena appear before samples failure. In order to understand the IR change characteristics and physical mechanism of engineering solid samples externally loaded, some IR detection experiments results were achieved, including TIR imaging of rocks failure under uniaxial compression, TIR imaging of interaction between bolt and rock uniaxially loaded, TIR imaging of roadway deformation, and TIR imaging of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) tensile failure. It is discovered that the temporal sequential features of the TIR radiation are connected with mechanical behaviors, and they show different staged characteristics. According to the change ratios of TIR temperature (TIRT) of the different areas of the surrounding rock, the acting area of bolts are determined. The bolted ranges are the same as the results of numerical simulation with FLAC3D. The relationships of UHMWPE were analyzed between average TIR temperature (ATIRT) and strain and mechanical work. The prospective method will be applied in the fields of mining engineering, underground engineering and side slope engineering.