NSF Award
9710640
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase 11 project could significantly reduce the cost of radiologic nondestructive assessment. Adelphi proposes to construct an inexpensive compact betatron, capable of high-flux x-ray emisson, for the purpose of Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) in civil structures. The proposed x-ray source would replace more expensive RF linacs and thereby reduce the cost of radiological equipment. In conventional betatrons, eddy-current losses in the iron limit the frequency and the maximum field, thereby limiting the output beam power. With the use of proprietary low-loss, high-frequency materials, higher driving frequencies permit much higher x-ray fluxes while still reducing the size of the source. Radiologic NDE requires just such an inexpensive x-ray source to provide rapid, high signal-to-noise analyses. As a proof of principle, a prototype betatron x-ray source will be constructed and tested. The proposed research will demonstrate that the betatron will provide an x-ray flux necessary for rapid evaluation of concrete structures up to 70 cm thick. The betatron-based x-ray source developed under this proposal will find immediate commercial application as a replacement for the linacs currently used in industrial NDE. A second application for such an inexpensive high-flux x-ray source is radiotherapy treatment of cancer in developing countries.
