ADVANCED AREA DETECTOR FOR REAL-TIME RADIOGRAPHY OF AEROPROPULSION MATERIALS ADVANCED AREA DETECTOR FOR REAL-TIME RADIOGRAPHY OF AEROPROPULSION MATERIALS

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PHASE I EFFORT ARE TO QUANTIFY THE EFFECT OF X-RAY SCATTER ON RADIOGRAPHIC IMAGE QUALITY, TEST SCATTER REJECTION APPROACHES, AND GENERATE A CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF A SYSTEM WHICH WILL PROVIDE BETTER RESOLUTION, CONTRAST SENSITIVITY, AND DYNAMIC RANGE THAN IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE WITH COMMERCIAL REAL-TIME RADIOGRAPHY SYSTEMS. PRESENTLY, REAL-TIME RADIOGRAPHY SYSTEMS DO NOT REJECT SCATTER AND THIS HAS A SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON THE PERFORMANCEOF THESE SYSTEMS. X-RAY SYSTEMS WITH ENHANCED RESOLUTION, CONTRAST SENSITIVITY, AND DYNAMIC RANGE ARE NEEDED FOR THE IMAGING OF ADVANCED AEROPROPULSION MATERIALS THAT ARE NOW BEING DEVELOPED. INFORMATION GATHERED FROM SUCH A SYSTEM WILL BE USEFUL IN DEVELOPING ACCURATE MODELS TO PREDICT MATERIAL BEHAVIOR. INCORPORATION OF SUCH A SYSTEM WITH A LOAD FRAME WILL ALLOW INFORMATION TO BE GATHERED ON HOW THESE MATERIALS BEHAVE UNDER MECHANICAL LOAD. THE SYSTEM WILL ALSO BE DESIGNED TO BE COMPATIBLE WITH A FUTURE UPGRADETO A VOLUMETRIC COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT) SYSTEM PROVIDING EVEN GREATER INFORMATION ON ADVANCED MATERIAL BEHAVIOR. NASA WILL BE ABLE TO USE BOTH THE NEAR REAL-TIME RADIOGRAPHIC AND VOLUMETRIC COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEMS TO STUDY ADVANCED AEROPROPULSION MATERIAL BEHAVIOR AND PROVIDE INFORMATION TO GUIDE THE MODELING OF THESE MATERIAL SYSTEMS.