Capture motion without blur

With a 20 ns Flash X-ray pulse, motion blur is essentially eliminated. You can capture sharp images at several km/s speeds, which makes Flash X-ray imaging a perfect complement to a high-speed camera. With X-rays this fast, you can monitor dynamic events both by shadow imaging to follow motion and penetration imaging to see what happens inside an object during a collision.

Imagine your possibilities

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word collision? In this example we dropped a steel ball into a jar filled with glass beads and recorded the event using a MAT (multi-anode tube) flash X-ray source and a cinematic imaging detector. Here you can see the beads reacting to the impact and scattering. That might make you think… how is the ground affected during pile driving in construction work? And what shock wave does the pile driver create with each strike? 

If we increase the speed from km/h for pile driving to hyper velocity speeds of above 4-5 km/s, we can describe a collision between a meteorite and the earth. Think of the resulting crater and displaced materials – it looks similar to a stone thrown into water. The analogy actually has some truth to it. When a meteorite strikes the planet, shock waves are imparted both to the surface of the planet and to the meteorite itself. As the shock waves expand into the planet and the meteorite, they disperse energy and the result is vaporized, melted, and crushed material. Within the planet, the expanding shock wave is closely followed by a release wave, generated by the reflection of the original wave from the free surface of the planet creating large pressure gradients within the planet. The pressure gradients generate a flow that projects material up and away from the point of impact.

The power of simulations

How do we know so much about meteorite impacts? It is of course through field studies, but tests and simulations are very beneficial sources of data as well. They allow us to change parameters and perform studies during events which is very powerful – not to mention less time consuming compared to waiting for a meteorite to impact at the place of your experimental setup. These simulations are made possible using gas guns capable of accelerating objects up to several km/ second speeds and recording object collisions with materials using high speed imaging devices with flash X-ray technology.

Get answers to your questions about dynamic events

Stop guessing and get real answers to your questions about dynamic events. Flash X-ray can give you the data you need to make informed decisions. And do you need support with your experimental setup? We have the tools to provide you with a custom setup for your particular experiments. Want to know more about taking your research to the next level? Get in touch with us and we’ll help you to specify and price out exactly what you need.