Patent ID: 8442301

Claim:
A nondestructive method of inspecting a material, the method comprising the steps of: providing a reference standard having a known density; performing a three-dimensional imaging scan technique on the material and the reference standard such that a test image of the material and a reference image of the reference standard appear together in each of a plurality of parallel two-dimensional scan views generated by the three-dimensional imaging scan technique, the reference images and the test images comprising pixel data corresponding to amounts of scan energies absorbed at each of a plurality of parallel two-dimensional cross-sections of the reference standard and the material; locating the reference images of the reference standard in the scan views; normalizing the reference images of the reference standard in the scan views to determine at least an average value of the pixel data for the reference images; determining values of the pixel data of the test image in each of the scan views; comparing the values of the pixel data of the test image in each of the scan views to at least the average value of the pixel data of the reference images to detect the presence of an anomaly in the test image in each of the scan views; and comparing the detected anomaly in at least one of the test images of the scan views to a requirement standard for the material.