An ultra fast electron beam x-ray tomography scanner

TLDR

The scanner’s functional principle mirrors that of electron‑beam X‑ray CT systems used in cardiac imaging. The study presents an ultra‑fast electron‑beam X‑ray tomography scanner optimized for high‑speed imaging of small flow vessels such as pipes and laboratory‑scale reactors. The scanner consists of an electron‑beam generator with rapid deflection, a semicircular tungsten‑alloy X‑ray target, and a circular detector array of 240 1.5 mm³ CZT elements. It can acquire flow cross‑sections at several thousand frames per second, enabling two‑phase flow studies with velocities of a few meters per second.

Abstract

This paper introduces the design of an ultra fast x-ray tomography scanner based on electron beam technology. The scanner has been developed for two-phase flow studies where frame rates of 1 kHz and higher are required. Its functional principle is similar to that of the electron beam x-ray CT scanners used in cardiac imaging. Thus, the scanner comprises an electron beam generator with a fast beam deflection unit, a semicircular x-ray production target made of tungsten alloy and a circular x-ray detector consisting of 240 CZT elements with 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm size each. The design is optimized with respect to ultra fast imaging of smaller flow vessels, such as pipes or laboratory-scale chemical reactors. In that way, the scanner is capable of scanning flow cross-sections at a speed of a few thousand frames per second which is sufficient to capture flows of a few meters per second velocity.