Compact Anode Design with the Heat Capacity Performance in Rotating Anode X-ray Tube for Digital Radiography

We studied the compact anode design to develop 100 kW rotating anode X-ray tube with large focal spot 1.2 mm, small focal spot 0.6 mm and tube voltage 150 kV for large hospital digital radiography using computer thermal simulation. The larger thermal radiation effect in a high vacuum can reduce the temperature of anode so the method to increase the surface area of anode is investigated. The anode has the multi-tier shape at the back side of TZM body of anode and also bigger diameter of anode. The number of multi-tiers was varied from 6 to 15 and the diameter of anode was also varied from ${\Phi}74$ to ${\Phi}82$. From ANSYS transient thermal simulation result, we could obtain $1056.4^{\circ}C$ anode maximum temperature when applying 100 kW input power at 0.1 second on target focal track which is less than $1091^{\circ}C$ of the conventional 75 kW X-ray tube with reduced anode weight by 15.5% than the conventional anode. The compact anode of reduced anode weight is able to improve the unwanted noise when the rotor is rotating at high-speed and also reduce the rotational torque which the cost effective stator-coil is possible. It is believed that the anode with 15 ea multi-tiers using ${\Phi}82$ can satisfy with the specification of the anode heat capacity. From the results of this paper, it has been confirmed that the proposed compact anode can be used as the anode of 100 kW rotating anode X-ray tube for digital radiography.