Abstract
X-ray computed tomography is a very powerful nondestructive technique in safety inspection of historic timber building. But, in field, various testing condition makes it difficult to carry out X-ray CT testing. Limited size in X-ray digital detector is one of the problems. In this study, a pitch pine disk with two holes was used to know how imperfection in X-ray projection affects CT image resolution. Using various number of projections, CT image was reconstructed by filtered back projection method, and then it was investigated how many projection is required to identify the holes in different location. Two artificial holes could be differently detected according to their location in cross section of specimen. One hole in center part of specimen was identified using more than 9 radiographs, but the other one which located in outer part of cross section could not be detected until more than 36 projections were used. Even though there is data missing in outer part of cross section due to limited size of detector, the center part of CT image could be reconstructed well and the resolution of outer part became higher with increase of the number of projections. For field application, the number of projections for CT image reconstruction needs to be decided with consideration of another nondestructive testing and the location of interest.
