Dual-Energy Processing of X-ray Images of Beryl in Muscovite Obtained Using Pulsed X-ray Sources

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a method for dual-energy processing of X-ray images using pulsed X-ray sources for the contrast detection of beryl in muscovite mica in 2D X-ray and CT images. These substances have similar chemical properties and are difficult to differentiate when one is against the background of the other using methods based on X-ray absorption. In the experiments, we used three pulsed X-ray sources with different maximum voltages. We performed modeling of the emission spectra and selection of the necessary energy bands due to X-ray absorbing filters: a positive effect was shown for dual-energy image processing when the function of converting X-ray radiation into a signal using the VIVIX-V 2323D detector was taken into account. As a result, a pulsed X-ray source with the pulse voltage of 330 kV was chosen for the contrast detection of beryl, with the content of 5–7% against the background of muscovite and the thickness up to 70 mm. Using this source and the developed mathematical algorithms, it is possible to obtain a band of low-energy radiation at the level of 70–80 keV, as well as high-energy radiation in the range of 180 keV. Methods based on the X-ray absorption can become both additional and independent methods for studying and monitoring membranes; these objects range from tens of nanometers to several micrometers in size.

Identification of an Unknown Substance by the Methods of Multi-Energy Pulse X-ray Tomography

“…A significant part of these works is devoted to the issue of the identification of substances of custom control. Another important application of this method is soft tissue differentiation, widely used in biological and medical imaging [11], and investigations of minerals with complex chemical composition [12]. In [13,14], the author proposes an alternative approach that focuses on solving the problem of identifying the partial chemical composition of an unknown medium by multi-energy X-ray exposure.…”

“…It is worth noting that the usage of pulsed sources to improve imaging quality is not a new idea. For instance, A. Komarskiy et al [12] apply pulses of 50 nanoseconds in duration for objects moving on a conveyor belt examination. However, for typical small-sized objects, such pulse duration does not allow scattered radiation component discrimination since the irradiation process becomes practically stationary in this case.…”