SINDBAD: a realistic multi-purpose and scalable X-ray simulation tool for NDT applications

The X-ray radiographic simulation software SINDBAD, has been developed to help the design stage of radiographic systems or to evaluate the efficiency of image processing techniques, in both medical imaging and Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) industrial fields. This software can model any radiographic set-up, including the X-ray source, the beam interaction inside the object represented by its Computed Aided Design (CAD) model, and the imaging process in the detector. For each step of the virtual experimental bench, SINDBAD combines different modelling modules, accessed via Graphical User Interfaces (GUI), to provide realistic synthetic images. In this paper, we present an overview of all the functionalities which are available in SINDBAD, with a complete description of all the physics taken into account in models as well as the CAD and GUI facilities available in many computing platforms. We underline the different modules usable for different applications which make SINDBAD a multi-purposed and scalable X-ray simulation tool. (authors)