Industrial Radiography For Measuring The Thickness of a Material

X-ray imaging is the technique of studying the absorption or attenuation of x-ray beam when passed through a material. These attenuated X-rays are then captured by a detector to analyze the various properties of the material used. Xray imaging is widely used in medical, physical as well as the chemical industry for various reasons, such as, to produce detailed images of the human body, bones or blood vessels; to determine the thickness, composition or defects of a material; to analyze concentration or molar absorptivity of a solution using Beer Lambert Law etc. In this work, the whole process is performed through computer simulations without use of any actual experimentation. A thin aluminum plate is bombarded with X-rays. The transmitted beam is passed through a phosphorescent sheet of Cesium Iodide and the absorbed energy fraction, that is the energy converted into light was detected, with the help of a linear detector. The experiment was performed with different values of thickness of aluminum sheet and a calibration curve was plotted between thickness and signal, to fmd the thickness for unknown signals. The main advantage of this approach is the non-requirement of a laboratory or equipment for setup. It is a hassle free, safe, low cost process and consumes very less time. Computer simulation is also very helpful in what-if scenario analysis. This method to determine the thickness of a material fmds numerous industrial uses.