Image processing methods for neutron and X-ray radiography of liquid and solidified metals

This contribution is an overview of the latest advances in image processing made by the authors, as well as recent and potential applications, including magnetohydrodynamic systems. Contemporary research of two-phase liquid metal flow requires state of the art experimental methods to probe downscaled representative systems. Among these methods are dynamic neutron and X-ray radiography which have applications in studying bubble flow in liquid metal affected by applied magnetic field [1], bubble collective dynamics in Hele-Shaw liquid metal cells [2], particle flow in liquid metal channels [3] and mesoscale solidification of metals under applied magnetic field [4]. Pushing the boundaries, these measurements are inevitably performed under adverse conditions: low signal-to-noise ratio owing to high frame rates (relative to the source flux) required to capture the physics of interest, but also low image resolution, image artefacts, scattering, etc. Therefore, to extract meaningful information from experimental data and study the underlying processes, appropriate image processing methods and tools are required. Development of such tools is also motivated by very limited (for most researchers) access to high-end neutron and X-ray imaging setups and thus one must make the most of data acquired during limited beamtimes. Examples of applications of our solutions to experimental data from neutron and X-ray imaging are shown in Figures 1-4.