Performance Evaluation of Image Super-Resolution for Cavity Detection in Irradiated Materials

Radiation-induced swelling in structural materials is a significant challenge for the safe operation of nuclear power plants. One of the promising solutions to accelerate the understanding of swelling is the development of machine learning tools for accelerated characterization of irradiated microst...

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Main Authors: John Olamofe, Lijun Qian, Kevin G. Field
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10960607/
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author John Olamofe
Lijun Qian
Kevin G. Field
author_facet John Olamofe
Lijun Qian
Kevin G. Field
author_sort John Olamofe
collection DOAJ
description Radiation-induced swelling in structural materials is a significant challenge for the safe operation of nuclear power plants. One of the promising solutions to accelerate the understanding of swelling is the development of machine learning tools for accelerated characterization of irradiated microstructures, focusing on cavities which contribute to a materials swelling response. In this paper, we examine an object detection model for cavities, YOLOv8, for cavity detection using the datasets from the Canadian Nuclear Laboratory (CNL) and Nuclear Oriented Materials & Examination (NOME). Specifically, we explored the use of Image Super-Resolution (ISR) techniques to enhance the detection performance either in the underfocused or overfocused condition for improved small cavity detection. The overall F1-score increase of 6.8% via ISR, highlights the effectiveness of ISR techniques in enhancing the model’s performance in detecting irradiation-induced cavities across all modalities. Furthermore, this study presents a comparative evaluation of YOLOv8 and Faster R-CNN, discussing their detection trade-offs and suitability for different imaging conditions. In addition to evaluating overall detection accuracy, this work assesses the impact of ISR on both models’ precision and recall for cavity detection.
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spelling doaj-art-c4e4cb3f55ce434881e46424214b39882025-08-20T03:53:42ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113680526806510.1109/ACCESS.2025.355944310960607Performance Evaluation of Image Super-Resolution for Cavity Detection in Irradiated MaterialsJohn Olamofe0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2898-5210Lijun Qian1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1577-3359Kevin G. Field2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3105-076XCREDIT Center and ECE Department, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX, USACREDIT Center and ECE Department, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX, USADepartment of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USARadiation-induced swelling in structural materials is a significant challenge for the safe operation of nuclear power plants. One of the promising solutions to accelerate the understanding of swelling is the development of machine learning tools for accelerated characterization of irradiated microstructures, focusing on cavities which contribute to a materials swelling response. In this paper, we examine an object detection model for cavities, YOLOv8, for cavity detection using the datasets from the Canadian Nuclear Laboratory (CNL) and Nuclear Oriented Materials & Examination (NOME). Specifically, we explored the use of Image Super-Resolution (ISR) techniques to enhance the detection performance either in the underfocused or overfocused condition for improved small cavity detection. The overall F1-score increase of 6.8% via ISR, highlights the effectiveness of ISR techniques in enhancing the model’s performance in detecting irradiation-induced cavities across all modalities. Furthermore, this study presents a comparative evaluation of YOLOv8 and Faster R-CNN, discussing their detection trade-offs and suitability for different imaging conditions. In addition to evaluating overall detection accuracy, this work assesses the impact of ISR on both models’ precision and recall for cavity detection.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10960607/Cavity detectionimage super-resolutionirradiated materialsmachine learningYOLO
spellingShingle John Olamofe
Lijun Qian
Kevin G. Field
Performance Evaluation of Image Super-Resolution for Cavity Detection in Irradiated Materials
IEEE Access
Cavity detection
image super-resolution
irradiated materials
machine learning
YOLO
title Performance Evaluation of Image Super-Resolution for Cavity Detection in Irradiated Materials
title_full Performance Evaluation of Image Super-Resolution for Cavity Detection in Irradiated Materials
title_fullStr Performance Evaluation of Image Super-Resolution for Cavity Detection in Irradiated Materials
title_full_unstemmed Performance Evaluation of Image Super-Resolution for Cavity Detection in Irradiated Materials
title_short Performance Evaluation of Image Super-Resolution for Cavity Detection in Irradiated Materials
title_sort performance evaluation of image super resolution for cavity detection in irradiated materials
topic Cavity detection
image super-resolution
irradiated materials
machine learning
YOLO
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10960607/
work_keys_str_mv AT johnolamofe performanceevaluationofimagesuperresolutionforcavitydetectioninirradiatedmaterials
AT lijunqian performanceevaluationofimagesuperresolutionforcavitydetectioninirradiatedmaterials
AT kevingfield performanceevaluationofimagesuperresolutionforcavitydetectioninirradiatedmaterials