Tomosynthesis Feasibility Study for Visualization of Interiors of Wood Columns Surrounded with Walls

The need for non-destructive testing and evaluation of Korean traditional wooden buildings is increasing because of their widespread deterioration. Among all types of deterioration, termite damage in wooden columns is the most difficult to detect with the naked eye because it starts inside the wood, and the initial deterioration is small. X-ray computed tomography (CT) is the best technology to investigate the inner state of wood that has less damage, but applying it to wooden columns between walls is challenging. Therefore, the feasibility of tomosynthesis, which is a method to reconstruct a coronal section of a subject with a few X-ray projections from a limited angle of rotation, was studied as an alternative to CT. Pine (P. densiflora) with three artificial holes was prepared as a specimen to evaluate the quality of reconstructed tomosynthesis images according to the different number of projections. The quality of the tomosynthesis images in the in-focus plane was evaluated using the contrast-to-noise ratios, while a vertical resolution between the images was assessed by determining the artificial spread function. The quality of the tomosynthesis image in the in-focus plane increased as the number of projections increased and then remained constant as the number of projections reached 21 or over. In the case of vertical resolution, there was no significant difference when 21 projections or more were used to reconstruct the images. A distinct difference between coronal section images was found when the distance was more than 10 mm from one plane to another plane.