An open, modular, and flexible micro X-ray computed tomography system for research.

In this paper, a modular and open micro X-ray Computed Tomography (μXRCT) system is presented, which was set up during the last years at the Institute of Applied Mechanics (CE) of the University of Stuttgart and earlier at the Institute of Computational Engineering of Ruhr-University Bochum. The system is characterized by its intrinsic flexibility resulting from the modular and open design on each level and the opportunity to implement advanced experimental in situ setups. On the one hand, the presented work is intended to support researchers interested in setting up an experimental XRCT system for the microstructural characterization of materials. On the other hand, it aims to support scientists confronted with the decision to set up a system on their own or to buy a commercial scanner. In addition to the presentation of the various hardware components and the applied modular software concept, the technical opportunities of the open and modular hard- and software design are demonstrated by implementing a simple and reliable method for the compensation of bad detector pixels to enhance the raw data quality of the projections. A detailed investigation of the performance of the presented system with regard to the achievable spatial resolution is presented. XRCT datasets of three different applications are finally shown and discussed, demonstrating the wide scope of options of the presented system.