Resolving gas bubbles ascending in liquid metal from low-SNR neutron radiography images

We demonstrate a new image processing methodology for resolving gas bubbles travelling through liquid metal from dynamic neutron radiography images with an intrinsically low signal-to-noise ratio. Image pre-processing, denoising and bubble segmentation are described in detail, with practical recommendations. Experimental validation is presented—stationary and moving reference bodies with neutron-transparent cavities are radiographed with imaging conditions representative of the cases with bubbles in liquid metal. The new methods are applied to our experimental data from previous and recent imaging campaigns, and the performance of the methods proposed in this paper is compared against our p…