Advanced Nuclear Imaging Techniques for Industrial Process Analysis and Component Testing

Nuclear imaging for industrial process analysis and non-destructive component testing has been around for longtime, but progression and innovation in this field has been limited and not as advanced compared to what has been achieved in the medical field. Today, it is essential to make more research efforts in this field, specifically to implement such techniques in large-scale industrial (process industry) applications. The required efforts involve elevating current laboratory-scale advanced nuclear imaging techniques (e. g., laminography, computed tomography and radioactive tracers) to be applied in testing large-scale process industry components and equipment. Moreover, further research activities are also essential to utilize current advancement in software algorithms and in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for nuclear imaging data interpretation and analysis. The potential benefits resulting from such advancements may include: (i) improved and optimized design of certain industrial process and components; (ii) reduced maintenance and quality assurance process time; (iii) improved safety and incident prevention; and (iv) mitigated environmental risk.
 
From the well-established applications of radiotracer techniques, including Computed Tomography (CT), to advanced modelling using sophisticated 2D and 3D CT techniques integrated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, industries stand to benefit immensely. By employing a strategic configuration of detectors, they can leverage cutting-edge technology developed in research laboratories while minimizing investment costs.
 
Thus, this Coordinated Research Project (CRP) is proposed to focus on transferring specific advanced nuclear imaging technologies from laboratory scale to industrial scale as well as implementing AI for efficient and reliable image analysis and interpretation.