Development of a Multi-Energy Flash Computed Tomography Diagnostic for Three Dimensional Imaging of Ballistic Experiments.

The US Army Research Laboratory is developing a Multi-Energy Flash Computed Tomography (MEFCT) diagnostic that will be used to capture tomographic image(s) of dynamic impact and detonation events. To accomplish dynamic tomography, the diagnostic uses numerous source--detector pairs to accumulate fifteen 2-D images, which are subsequently used for reconstruction of up to three 3-D tomograms. The diagnostic is designed to provide either: a single-frame, three-dimensional tomogram that delineates material specificity throughout the field, or a three-frame tomographic movie spaced in time while lacking the information pertaining to the material specificity. This work assesses aspects of the diagnostic development including structural design, dynamic capability, instrument resolution and computational reconstruction. Examples of real-time measurements are provided from static phantom fiducials, as well as a few dynamic, non-symmetric experiments to demonstrate the strengths and usefulness of the capability.