Characterization of the image quality in neutron radioscopy

Neutron radioscopy, or dynamic neutron radiography, is a non-destructive testing method, which has made big steps in the last years. Depending on the neutron flux, the object and the detector, for single events a time resolution down to a few milliseconds is possible. In the case of repetitive processes the object can be synchronized with the detector and better statistics in the image can be reached by adding radiographies of the same phase with a time resolution down to 100 mu s. By stepwise delaying the trigger signal a radiography movie can be composed. Radiography images of a combustion engine and an injection nozzle were evaluated quantitatively by different methods trying to characterize the image quality of an imaging system. The main factors which influence the image quality are listed and discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.