Direct inversion of the Longitudinal Ray Transform for 2D residual elastic strain fields

Abstract We examine the problem of Bragg-edge elastic strain tomography from energy resolved neutron transmission imaging. A new approach is developed for two-dimensional plane-stress and plane-strain systems whereby elastic strain can be reconstructed from its Longitudinal ray transform (LRT) as two parts of a Helmholtz decomposition based on the concept of an Airy stress potential. The solenoidal component of this decomposition is reconstructed using an inversion formula based on a tensor filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm whereas the potential part can be recovered using either Hooke’s law or a finite element model of the elastic system. The technique is demonstrated for two-dimensional plane-stress systems in both simulation, and on real experimental data. We also demonstrate that application of the standard scalar FBP algorithm to the LRT in these systems recovers the trace of the solenoidal component of strain and we provide physical meaning for this quantity in the case of 2D plane-stress and plane-strain systems.