Fast reconstruction of computerized tomography images based on the cross-entropy method

Computerized tomography (CT) has been applied to multi-phase flow measurement in recent years. Image reconstruction of CT often involves repeatedly solving large-dimensional matrix equations, which are computationally expensive, especially for the case of on-line flow regime identification. In this paper, a minimum cross-entropy (MCE) reconstruction based on wavelet multi-resolution processing, i.e., an MRMCE method, is proposed for fast reconstruction of CT images. Each row of the system’s matrix is transformed by 1-D wavelet decomposition. A regularized MCE solution is obtained using the simultaneous multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique (SMART) at a coarse resolution level, where important information of the reconstructed image is contained. Then the solution in the finest resolution is obtained by inverse fast wavelet transformation (IFWT). Both computer simulation and experimental work were carried out for oil–gas two-phase flow regimes. Results obtained indicate that the MRMCE method improves the resolution of the reconstructed images and dramatically reduces the computation time compared with the traditional linear back-projection (LBP), MCE and algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) methods. Furthermore, the new method can also be used to accurately estimate the local time-averaged void fraction of dynamic two-phase flow. It is suitable for on-line multi-phase flow measurement.

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► The MCE method is improved to the MRMCE method to reduce computation time.
► The MRMCE method dramatically reduces the computation complexity.
► The MRMCE method achieves a higher reconstruction quality than traditional methods.
► The MRMCE method has the potential to measure dynamic multi-phase flow patterns.
► The local time-averaged void fraction of dynamic oil–gas two-phase flow is estimated with the aid of the MRMCE method.