Sains Malaysiana 47(8)(2018): 1883–1890

http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2018-4708-29

 

A Review of Common Beam Hardening Correction Methods for Industrial X-ray

Computed Tomography

(Ulasan Mengenai Kaedah Pembetulan Pengerasan Alang bagi Tomografi X-ray Berkomputer Industri)

 

O.M.H. AHMED & YUSHOU SONG*

 

College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University, 145 Nantong Street, Harbin 150001, China

 

Received: 9 December 2017/Accepted: 5 April 2018

 

ABSTRACT

X-ray computed tomography (XCT) became an important instrument for quality assurance in industry products as a non-destructive testing tool for inspection, evaluation, analysis and dimensional metrology. Thus, a high-quality image is required. Due to the polychromatic nature of X-ray energy in XCT, this leads to errors in attenuation coefficient which is generally known as beam hardening artifact. This leads to a distortion or blurring-like cupping and streak in the reconstruction images, where a significant decrease in imaging quality is observed. In this paper, recent research publications regarding common practical correction methods that were adopted to improve an imaging quality have been discussed. It was observed from the discussion and evaluation, that a problem behind beam hardening reduction for the multi-materials object, especially in the absence of prior information about X-ray spectrum and material characterizations would be a significant research contribution, if the correction could be achieved without the need to perform forward projections and multiple reconstructions.

 

Keywords: Beam hardening; cupping artifact; images artifact

 

ABSTRAK

Tomografi x-ray berkomputer (XCT) menjadi instrumen yang penting dalam penjaminan kualiti produk industri sebagai alat ujian tak musnah bagi menjalankan pemeriksaan, penilaian, analisis dan metrologi berdimensi. Oleh itu, imej yang berkualiti tinggi diperlukan. Disebabkan oleh sifat tenaga x-ray XCT yang polikromatik, hal ini boleh menyebabkan dalam pengecilan pekali yang dikenali sebagai artifak pengerasan alang. Hal ini seterusnya menyebabkan lengkungan seperti erot atau kabur dan jejalur pada pembinaan semula imej yang menyebabkan penurunan kualiti yang signifikan pada imej yang dilihat. Kertas ini membincangkan mengenai penerbitan yang mengkaji kaedah pembetulan praktikal yang digunakan untuk meningkatkan kualiti pengimejan. Daripada perbincangan dan penilaian yang dilakukan, masalah di sebalik pengurangan pengerasan alang bagi objek multi-bahan terutamanya pada ketiadaan maklumat awal tentang spektrum X-ray dan sifat bahan boleh menjadi sumbangan kajian yang sangat penting, iaitu sekiranya pembetulan tersebut boleh dicapai tanpa perlu melakukan unjuran awal dan pembinaan semula berganda.

 

Kata kunci: Artifak imej; artifak lengkung; pengerasan alang

 

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*Corresponding author; email: songyushou80@163.com