High-speed X-ray movies: slow motion view inside dynamics changes of objects
What is it about?
Dynamics inside massive objects such as damage (e.g. fracture) or transformations (e.g. laser welding) are of high interest to increase life time of products or to optimize industrial processes. High-speed radioscopy using large scale facilities can nowadays be used to study dynamics inside opaque objects with unprecedented temporal resolution.
Why is it important?
X-ray imaging is a well-established tool for non-destructive evaluation frequently applied to static objects. Dynamics inside opaque samples are commonly not accessible due to the limited amount of photons emitted by classical X-ray sources. By using large scale facilities, i.e. synchrotron light sources, sufficient photons are available to realize exposure times in the nanosecond regime for hard X-rays while maintaining high spatial resolution. This allows to depict dynamics such as fracture, cavity collapse or melting inside opaque and dense samples such as metals or engineered devices.