Effect of Radiant Energy on the Formation of Optical Image in X-Ray Inspections

Abstract

Digital radiography is currently a genuine alternative to the laborious and uneconomical method of X-ray diffraction in nondestructive testing. The processes of forming optical images on a radiographic film and on a flat-panel detector are different. The input action on a detector, whether a radiographic film or a digital transducer, is the so-called radiation image, the X-ray radiation generated by an X-ray tube and transmitted through a test object. The object attenuates radiation depending on its own thickness and material density. The main parameters of the radiation image are its contrast, definition, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In order to achieve the most efficient conversion of the X-ray image into an optical one, one needs to choose the optimum combination of the listed parameters depending on which detector is being used. In this study, theoretical research and practical evaluation of its results have been carried out. Conditions have been determined for the best adaptation of a radiation image to the employed detector that ensure the prescribed quality indicators of the optical image of the test object. Results of the research that was carried out within the framework of scientific field 2.3 “Developing methods for automated nondestructive testing and the reliability of its results” (“Strategic directions of development of materials and technologies of their processing for a period of up to 2030”) are provided.