Details of Grant

EPSRC Reference:

EP/C509803/1

Title:

Nanotomography

Principal Investigator:

Other Investigators:

Lionheart, Professor WRB	Sinclair, Professor I	Marrow, Professor J
Edwards, Professor L	Hewitt, Mr WT	Mummery, Professor P

Researcher Co-Investigators:

Project Partners:

X-Tek Systems

Department:

Materials

Organisation:

University of Manchester, The

Scheme:

Standard Research (Pre-FEC)

Starts:

01 June 2005

Ends:

31 May 2009

Value (£):

325,636

EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:

Materials testing & eng.

EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:

Manufacturing

Related Grants:

Panel History:

Summary on Grant Application Form

Tomography is the reconstruction of a 3D 'image' from a series of 2D radiographs measured as the sample is rotated. Currently the state of the art is micron scale tomography. Our aim is to develop a technique capable of nanotomography for the 3D imaging of engineering materials and components to provide the equivalent of a 3D 'scanning electron microscope' with comparable versatility. This requires a step improvement in the imaging hardware in order to collect images of sufficient resolution. However that alone is not sufficient: the current reconstruction software requires the whole sample lie within the field of view for all images. This means that the maximum sample size to spatial resolution (given in terms of the pixels or voxels) ratio is approximately equal to the number of pixels (typically 10000). As a result increasing resolution requires smaller and smaller (sub-millimetre) samples. We will develop local tomography and partial angle reconstructions to reduce this constraint. Otherwise it would not be possible to exploit the increased spatial resolution because the samples would be too small to be of engineering significance. In this project we will develop both synchrotron and lab. X-ray tomography instruments and associated software.

Key Findings

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Potential use in non-academic contexts

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Impacts

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Summary
Date Materialised

Sectors submitted by the Researcher

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Project URL:

http://www.mxif.manchester.ac.uk

Further Information:

Organisation Website:

http://www.man.ac.uk