TOMOGRAPHIC METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PIPING INSPECTION

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tomographic method and apparatus for a piping inspection, which implements an image reconstruction operation from imperfect projection data only in a very small angle range since it is difficult for a conventional CT to obtain required perfect data when an image of plant piping is captured in the field, visualizes a minute defect such as a thickness reduction within a specimen, and generates a high-quality tomographic image. SOLUTION: The tomographic apparatus 20 captures projection data of the piping in a plurality of limited directions. A control/image capturing apparatus 31 captures the projection data. An image reconstruction calculating apparatus 34 reconstructs an image as a contour shape of the piping from the projection data captured by the image capturing apparatus 31. A shape information providing apparatus 32 provides detail shape information on the contour shape of the piping to the contour shape of the piping calculated by the image reconstruction calculating apparatus 34. The image reconstruction calculating apparatus 34 implements an image reconstruction on the restrained condition as the detail shape information provided by the shape information providing apparatus 32. COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT