Resolving gas bubbles ascending in liquid metal from low-SNR neutron radiography images

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new image processing approach for accurately detecting gas bubbles in liquid metal using low-SNR neutron radiography, with validated experimental results and open-source tools.

Contribution

A novel image processing methodology that significantly improves bubble detection in low-quality neutron radiography images of liquid metal.

Findings

Enhanced detection accuracy over previous methods

Successful application to experimental data with low SNR

Open-source implementation available

Abstract

We demonstrate a new image processing methodology for resolving gas bubbles travelling through liquid metal from dynamic neutron radiography images with intrinsically low signal-to-noise ratio. Image pre-processing, denoising and bubble segmentation are described in detail, with practical recommendations. Experimental validation is presented - stationary and moving reference bodies with neutron-transparent cavities are radiographed with imaging conditions similar to the cases with bubbles in liquid metal. The new methods are applied to our experimental data from previous and recent imaging campaigns, and the performance of the methods proposed in this paper is compared against our previously developed methods. Significant improvements are observed as well as the capacity to reliably extract physically meaningful information from measurements performed under highly adverse imaging conditions. The showcased image processing solution and separate elements thereof are readily extendable beyond the present application, and have been made open-source.