Observer POD for radiographic testing

The radiographic testing is an important non-destructive testing method, especially in industrial areas where people could be injured in case of failing of a component. There it is a mighty method to find volumetric defects. As bigger the penetrated length of the defect in the component is, as bigger is the radiographic contrast. The detectability of volumetric defects in its turn is not only depending on the contrast but also on the noise, the defect area and its shape. The currently applied POD approach uses mostly only the contrast and the noise as detection threshold. This does not reflect accurately the results of evaluations by human observers. A new approach is introduced, using the widely applied POD evaluation and additionally a detection threshold depending on the area of the defect. The presentation shows the process of calculating the POD curves with simulated data by the modeling software aRTist and with artificial reference data. This approach was developed within a joint project with the company POSIVA, which is constructing a final depository for high active nuclear fuels in Finland. Radiographic testing is one of the NDT-methods they use to test the electron beam welds of the copper canisters. The copper canisters will be used in the depository as a corrosion barrier within the waste management concept. (Published as a poster session.)