Evaluation of Flaw Detection Algorithm Using Simulated X-Ray Computed Tomography of Ground Truth Data

Published

October 4, 2023

Author(s)

Felix Kim, Adam L. Pintar, John Henry J. Scott, Edward Garboczi

Abstract

A framework to generate simulated X-ray computed tomography (XCT) data of ground truth flaws was developed for evaluation of flaw detection algorithms. The simulated flaw structure gives a ground truth data set with which to quantitatively evaluate, by calculating exact errors, the results of flaw detection algorithms applied to simulated XCT images. The simulated data avoid time-consuming manual voxel labeling steps needed for many physical data sets to generate ground truth images . The voxelated pore meshes that exactly match ground truth images avoid approximations due to converting continuum shaped pore meshes to voxelated ground truth images. Spherical pores of varying sizes were randomly distributed near the surface and interior of a cylindrical part. XCT simulation was carried out on the structure at three different signal-to-noise levels by changing the number of frames integrated for each projection. Two different local thresholding algorithms (a commercial code and the Bernsen method) and a global thresholding algorithm (Otsu) were used to segment images using varying sets of algorithm parameters. The segmentation results were evaluated with various metrics, which showed different behaviors for the three algorithms regarding "closeness" to the ground truth data. An approach to optimize the thresholding parameters is demonstrated for the commercial flaw detection algorithm based on the semantic evaluation metrics. A framework to evaluate pore sizing error and binary probability of detection was further demonstrated to compare the optimization results.

Citation

Ndt & E International

Volume

4

Issue

4

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063170

Local Download

Keywords

X-ray computed tomography, defect, flaw, additive manufacturing, image segmentation, evaluation metrics, ground truth data

Citation

Kim, F. , Pintar, A. , Scott, J. and Garboczi, E. (2023), Evaluation of Flaw Detection Algorithm Using Simulated X-Ray Computed Tomography of Ground Truth Data, Ndt & E International, [online], https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063170, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=935170 (Accessed October 24, 2025)