COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY -A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL

C. Muralidhar, M. P. Subramanian and V. Ravishankar

Non Destructive Evaluation DivisionDefence Research & Development Laboratory, Kanchanbagh,
Hyderabad 500 058, IndiaFax: 040 24583946, e-mail: dr_c_muralidhar @rediffmail.com
Abstract
Pyrogen Igniter (PI) is used for igniting large rocket motors thus being a mission critical component.
PI is made up of propellant grain cast into a Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper (SRBP) tube, which in turn
bonded inside Glass Epoxy (GE) casing. GE, SRBP and Propellant grain are the constituents of PI and shall
have respective thicknesses. Since the quality of PI is highly process intensive, any variation at any stage of
the processing of PI may result in thickness variation of its constituents, defects at various interfaces is
detrimental and can affect the performance of PI that could result in mission failure. PI is to be investigated
for delaminations within GE casing, debonds between GE casing & SRBP tube, debonds between SRBP tube
& Propellant and defects within the propellant grain such as cracks, voids, inclusions etc. regarding defects.
Therefore PI is to be thoroughly investigated at various stages in terms of processes & defects for maintaining
its quality to achieve optimum performance.
X-ray Radiography is selected and widely used to assess the quality at every stage and also for
detection of defects at different interfaces of PI. However, Radiography compresses 3D information of an
object into the 2D image plane and is difficult to detect collinear and multiple defects but is still preferred to
qualify PI. UT is difficult to apply at various processing stages of PI and obtain incomplete information due to
couplant seepage, reflection & refraction at different interfaces. Computed Tomography (CT) generates thin
cross-sectional images and is free from such problems. CT with its high contrast resolution and high spatial
resolution has become attractive, where failure would result in extremely high costs and mission failure. In
view of the above, in our earlier work, we extensively employed CT for detection of multiple defects at
several interfaces without any overlap identified, located and found their extent in three dimensions.
Therefore, in the present paper, CT has been employed to reveal the process variations in PI, compared the
results and highlight the merits over RT & UT.
PI was evaluated using X-ray film Radiography and Industrial Computed Tomography (ICT) system
that consists of 450 kV X-ray source, 256 channel linear detector array and a 6-axes mechanical manipulator.
The resolution of the system was 500 m and slice thickness used was 1 mm.
Radiographs showed different interfaces of PI with overlap including thickness variation of SRBP and
Propellant grain, whereas Tomograms revealed all the interfaces, their boundaries including thickness
variation noticeably without any overlap. Tomograms taken at several locations of PI showed noticeably
thickness variations of SRBP and Propellant grain that were observed due to mandrel shift caused during
propellant cast. CT showed thickness variations distinctly with defects at different interfaces and allowed to
measure them. It is evident from Tomograms that thickness variation is predominantly visible whereas the
features overlap in RT that may miss to notice in few occasions, which may affect the performance of PI.
Region of Interest (ROI) reconstruction Tomogram facilitated an enlarged view, how deviation in process has
resulted in thicknesses variation. Thus CT provided vital information and has emerged as a diagnostic tool in
evaluating the process variations in PI over RT & UT.
Keywords: Computed Tomography, Pyrogen Igniter, Process variation