Project 4

X-ray tomography

X-ray tomography (commonly known as CT scan) is a powerful technique used to determine the internal structure of a body from the outside, non-destructively. For example, a leaky blood vessel in the brain or a small defect (such as a void or crack) in metal 3D printed parts. In this technique, first multiple X-ray transmission images are taken of the body from different directions. Then, sophisticated image processing software is used to reconstruct a 3D image of the interior of the body. Either the sample must rotate in front of a fixed camera/detector system or the camera / detector system must rotate around the piece (as in a medical CT Scan). In this project, we learn about the principles of X-ray tomography and depending on the student’s interest we work on either experiment using X-ray tomography or work on the development of a novel and inexpensive system.

In X-ray tomography, multiple transmission X-ray images of an object are obtained to reconstruct and thus ‘see’ the object’s internal structure