A Novel Algorithm for Fast Measurement of Material Density in Symmetrical Objects Using X-Ray Radiography

X-ray radiography has proved to be essential in medical imaging and examination of material structures because it is non-invasive and generates images based on well-understood attenuation characteristics of materials. For radiographs of multiple overlapping materials, unraveling the individual attenuation contributions poses a problem that is commonly handled by either taking many radiographs at different object orientations for computed tomography or multiple images with different photon energies for Multiple Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (MEXA). Alternatively, to perform fast measurements, a novel algorithm has been developed to determine multi-material systems' density. The algorithm can be effectively applied to perform measurement using only one to four radiographs of the object. A case study has been presented for a layered cylindrical object that involved sensitivity studies on image noise, X-ray generator voltage fluctuations, layer thickness measurement perturbations, and X-ray generator photon energy distribution fluctuations using simulated radiographs and density calculations using actual radiographs. The results from the simulated and experimental results were found to agree with actual density values.