MicroComputed Tomography: Methodology and Applications, Second Edition

MicroCT, Explained from Fundamentals to Applications

MicroComputed Tomography: Methodology and Applications, Second Edition is Stuart R. Stock’s updated technical guide to the imaging method known as microCT. The book is designed for two audiences at once: readers who are new to the modality and need a clear entry point, and practicing researchers who want a wider view of the many approaches now used in the field. That dual purpose shapes a text that moves from physical principles to instrumentation, data handling, and applied case studies.

Inside the Second Edition

This edition was revised in light of changes in microCT over more than a decade. Across its chapters, the book examines:

• X-ray interactions, contrast, and the fundamentals of CT imaging
• Reconstruction from projections, including algebraic, back-projection, Fourier-based, and machine-learning approaches
• MicroCT systems and components, from tube-based and synchrotron sources to nanoCT, phase contrast, X-ray fluorescence, and scattered X-rays
• Reconstruction artifacts, performance, precision, accuracy, and data-acquisition challenges
• Experimental design, segmentation, visualization, quantification, and deep-learning methods
• Metrology and microstructure quantification across diverse material systems
• Cellular and trabecular solids, bone, cartilage, implants, scaffolds, and engineered network solids
• Applications in pharmaceuticals, food, geology, planetary materials, metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, biological tissues, cultural heritage, archaeology, and forensics

From Theory to Experimental Practice

The book does not treat reconstruction, instrumentation, and analysis as separate topics. It connects them so that readers can understand how choices at the scanner, the reconstruction stage, and the segmentation or quantification stage influence the final measurement. Chapters on artifacts and performance are especially useful for recognizing where errors enter a dataset and how precision and accuracy can be assessed. The later application chapters show how microCT is used to study real structures, from bone and tissue scaffolds to manufactured composites and geological specimens.

Who Will Find It Useful

Researchers, engineers, imaging scientists, materials scientists, and graduate students working with 3D X-ray imaging will find a broad technical reference. Readers new to microCT can use the earlier chapters as a structured introduction, while experienced users can turn to the detailed coverage of systems, artifacts, metrology, and quantification methods. The second edition also reflects the growing role of machine learning and deep learning in segmentation and reconstruction.

Why This Edition Matters

MicroCT has changed significantly since the first edition. This revision reassesses the structure of the book in response to those changes while preserving its original goals: to introduce beginners to the imaging modality and to give current users access to the wide range of methods used in modern microCT practice.

Digital Edition from Digital Delights

This digital edition offers a practical, in-depth resource for anyone studying, teaching, or applying micro-computed tomography. If your work involves 3D imaging, microstructure analysis, or experimental design with X-ray tomography, this book provides both the background and the methodological detail to support careful, informed use of the technique.