Correcting Hardening Artifacts of Aero-Engine Blades with an Iterative Linear Fitting Technique Framework

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Aerospace Engineering
• Medical Imaging Physics

Background:

• Cermet turbine blades are critical for advanced aero-engine performance.
• X-ray non-destructive reconstruction is vital for inspecting these components.
• Beam hardening artifacts degrade image quality in industrial computed tomography (ICT).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel hardening-correction framework for ICT images of cermet turbine blades.
• To address the urgent issue of artifacts affecting reconstruction quality.
• To improve the accuracy and reliability of non-destructive testing for aero-engine components.

Main Methods:

• An iterative binarization technique was employed to enhance forward projection accuracy.
• A proposed linear fitting method, integrated with a Hermite function model, was used to determine optimal parameters.
• Projection data from engine turbine blades were corrected and used for tomographic reconstruction.

Main Results:

• The proposed framework achieved a lower root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.0133 compared to traditional methods.
• Higher peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 37.7050 dB and feature structural similarity (FSIM) of 0.9881 were recorded.
• The method demonstrated improved hardening artifact correction, yielding superior image quality.

Conclusions:

• The developed hardening-correction framework effectively reduces artifacts in ICT of cermet turbine blades.
• The proposed method offers a significant improvement in tomographic image quality for aero-engine inspection.
• This work provides innovative approaches for imaging and detecting defects in next-generation aero-engine turbine blades.