The impact of tube voltage on the erosion of rotating x‐ray anodes

Correcting the x-ray conversion efficiency of eroded target material, that is typically not accessible by measuring the tube current, may imply corrections to existing x-ray dose calculations. The relative increase of the allowable anode input power of rotating anode x-ray tubes with increasing tube voltage is substantially smaller than predicted by volume heating models that only rely on the focal spot surface temperature. The widely used voltage agnostic Müller-Oosterkamp formalism fails to predict the tube voltage dependency of the surface temperature of rotating anode targets, ignores the temperature dependency of the thermal diffusivity of tungsten-rhenium, and the granularity of the material. Nevertheless, we show theoretically why, backed by experience, the practical use of the Müller-Oosterkamp formalism is justified in medical imaging and provides a basis for comparison with new microparticle based targets. The reason for this surprising finding is that voltage dependent material erosion must be primarily considered as a precursor of thermal runaway effects.