AUTOMATED IMAGE ANALYSIS OF SOLID PROPULSION SYSTEM DEFECTS

COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT) IS RAPIDLY BECOMING AN IMPORTANT COMPLEMENT TO OTHER NON-DESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE) METHODS AND IS THE PREFERRED NDE TECHNIQUE WHENEVER THE PRIMARY GOAL IS TO LOCATE AND SIZE PLANAR AND VOLUMETRIC DETAIL IN THREE DIMENSIONS. HOWEVER, MODERN MILITARY CT SYSTEMS ARE CAPABLE OF GENERATING MORE THAN A GIGABYTE OF CT INSPECTION DATA PER DAY--AND EVEN HIGHER DATA RATES CAN BE EXPECTED IN THE FUTURE. THIS CREATES A SERIOUS PROBLEM, BECAUSE A COMPREHENSIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE INTEGRITY OF SOME CRITICAL AIR FORCE COMPONENTS, SUCH AS SOLID ROCKET MOTORS, CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED BY EXAMINING CT DATA FROM THE WHOLE OBJECT IN A FULL 3D CONTEXT. TO HELP COPE WITH THIS DATA PROCESSING BOTTLENECK AND MEET AN EVER INCREASING LOAD OF INFORMATION, INNOVATIVE DISPLAY AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES ARE URGENTLY NEEDED. WHILE A COMPLETELY AUTOMATIC ABILITY TO ANALYZE CT IMAGE DATA AND BRING POTENTIALLY SERIOUS MATERIAL CONDITIONS TO THE ATTENTION OF THE USER MIGHT IN PRINCIPLE BE FEASIBLE, AN EXTREMELY USEFUL--AND MORE IMMEDIATELY REALIZABLE--GOAL WOULD BE TO PROVIDE ADVANCED 3D GRAPHICS TECHNIQUES TO AUTOMATE THE PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF LARGE VOLUMES OF DATA BY TRAINED INSPECTORS. A PHASE I STUDY TO VALIDATE THE AUTHENTICITY OF CT DATA AGAINST KNOWN TYPES OF SRM DEFECTS AND TO EVALUATE THE EFFICACY OF ADVANCED 3D DISPLAY AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES IN ENHANCING THE DEFECT DETECTION ABILITIES OF USERS IS PROPOSED.