Automated Wind-Turbine Scanner

Scanner of 5 DOF for X-ray Computed Tomography Inspection in Wind Turbines Blades

Based on concept project a prototype of high energy micro-focus X-ray scanner system was design for the radiographic investigation. The X-ray source was capable of 450kV and 2mA, with a Tungsten target and a focal spot size of approximately 50μm. The detector used to acquire the data was an image intensifier coupled to a 12 bit CCD camera, 1012 x 1012 pixels with 160μm Pixel size. The source to detector distance was approximately 1.8m and the source to object distance was modified according to the area under inspection. The scanner is 5 DOF cartesian robot design setup with a rotational motion of the mounted blade samples, the detector was setup for straight motion of 3 DOF. All motors were controlled and power at 24V.

In tomography images in the form of spatial X-ray absorption maps of 2 dimensional sections of a test object are produced and three dimension absorption maps are then reconstructed from successive two dimensional tomography images. Such images allow much smaller defects to be detected than are possible with shadow radiography, in which multiple absorption images along successive cross section orthogonal to the X-ray beam are superimposed in the final image, with commensurate loss of contrast.

Countries & Year

England, Wales - 2010

Authors

Hernando Leon-Rodriguez
Bryan Bridge
Tariq Sattar
Daniel Mitchell