Image Enhancement Technology Ltd

NDT Example - Neutron Beam CT (NBCT) on Tornado jet turbine blade

Acknowledgement - The Tornado jet turbine blade was measured by neutron tomography at Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Switzerland. The following image is the cross-section of the turbine blade. This is the first application of the de-convolution technique developed by Image Enhancement Technology Ltd on images taken by neutron imaging. The image is provided by Dr. Shu Yan Zhang, Science & Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire. We would like to thank EU access programme NMI3 for the financial support to cover the travel expenses for experiment at PSI.

	Original X-ray image + Region Of Interest (ROI) ROI centred on the cooling hole-1 of a used Tornado jet turbine blade
	7x ROI before enhancement
	7x ROI after enhancement
	7x ROI after enhancement with annotation for internal diameter (ID) measurements

(a) Horizontal ID width = 18.57±.02 pixel => 0.2414±.0003 mm; (pixel size = 0.013mm)
(b) Vertical ID width = 17.79±.02 pixel => 0.2313±.0003 mm;
(c) 45° diagonal ID width= 17.43±.02 pixel => 0.2266±.0003 mm;
(d) 135° diagonal ID width= 18.18±.02 pixel => 0.2363±.0003 mm;
(e) Area of outlining = 260 pixel² ==> (f)
(f) Average ID width = 2x (A/π)^1/2 = 2x (260/π)^1/2 = 18.19 pixel => 0.2365±.0003 mm.

Comments: Geometrical distortion of IDs is likely to be caused by the intense heat while used in the field.

Applications: May be used for the condition monitorings of:- (i) manufacturing controls, and (ii) to determine the re-usability of a component after prolonged and intensive field use.

Before and after enhancement, side-by-side:

'before'	'after'