THE KEY TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW HIGH-TEMPERATURE, HIGHER-PERFORMANCE, LIGHTER-WEIGHT MATERIALS IS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROPERTIES AND BEHAVIOR OF THESE ADVANCED MATERIALS AS A FUNCTION OF THEIR MICROSTRUCTURE.

THE KEY TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW HIGH-TEMPERATURE, HIGHER-PERFORMANCE, LIGHTER-WEIGHT MATERIALS IS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROPERTIES AND BEHAVIOR OF THESE ADVANCED MATERIALS AS A FUNCTION OF THEIR MICROSTRUCTURE. AN X-RAY TOMOSCOPE, BASED ON COMPUTER TOMOGRAPHY (CT) PRINCIPLES, IS CAPABLE OF SPATIALLY LOCATING AND SIZING MATERIAL FEATURES TO A RESOLUTION OF 25 MICRONS OR BETTER, WHILE PROVIDING QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION ABOUT MATERIAL COMPOSITION. DEVELOPMENT OF A PRACTICAL INSTRUMENT DEPENDS UPON RESOLVING TECHNICAL UNCERTAINTIES IN HIGH-INTENSITY MICROFOCUS X-RAY SOURCES AND HIGH RESOLUTION DETECTOR TECHNOLOGY. PHASE I WILL DEVELOP A HIGH RESOLUTION SOLID-STATE DETECTOR ARRAY AND EVALUATE ITS PERFORMANCE ON A CERAMIC PHANTOM TEST PIECE.