High resolution X-ray phase contrast imaging for non-destructive testing of composite materials

X-ray imaging is widely used in non-destructive testing dedicated to industry, medical or security domain.In aircraft production, the aerospace industry increasingly integrates carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP), which may develop defects from operational wear, like lightning strikes.To robustly characterize density changes resulting from induced lightning damage in CFRP, multilateral shearing interferometry (MLSI) -a phase imaging technique -have been incorporated on a X-ray laboratory bench.Indeed, such method provides higher contrasts than X-ray attenuation imaging for composite materials and brings complementary information of the imaged sample.However, extracting the phase signal requires conditions of the imaging system an algorithmic strategies, which can lead to the emergence of artifacts in phase images.This thesis work involved the characterisation of these artifacts in the context of MLSI in X-ray phase imaging, as well as the development of tracking methods and corrective strategies.