Development of tomographic imaging with neutrons

Research project P 14229 Development of tomographic imaging with neutrons Michael ZAWISKY 06.03.2000 Our proposed project is in full agreement with the European COST 524 action "Neutron Imaging Techniques for the Detection of Defects in Materials" and with the COST 524 working group "Tomography and Computation Analysis". Our main goal is to participate on the implementation of neutron tomography in Europe. Our main goal is to participate on the implementation of neutron tomography in Europe. Therefore we consider two tomographic techniques, the conventional attenuation tomography which should be implemented at the Atominstitute and phase contrast tomography which recently was developed in X-ray and which should be realized with coherent neutron beams on our neutron interferometry fycility S18 at ILL-Grenoble. The advantages of both CT techniques should be demonstrated and realistic application fields have to be evaluated within this project. We are convinced that attenuation tomography offers new application fields even for small neutron sources. With the available state-of-the-art CCD detector we expect a spatial resolution of 0,5 mm over the sensitive area of 25 x 25 cm^2. Image processing algorithms should be developed for non-ideal beams and for scattering materials. Typical application fields are the non-destructive imaging of corrosion and crackings in civil engineering, lightweight materials, moisture in building materials, hydrogen in metals, fusion relevant materials and boron alloyed steel components for Austrian industry. Phase contrast tomography is a new tool in the detection of weak attenuating elements and isotopes. The sensitivity gain of phase imaging can reach three orders of magnitude compared to attenuation imaging. Within this project the principle of neutron phase contrast tomography should be demonstrated and beam conditions for routine applications should be described.