Welcome to the Amira-Avizo Software Use Case Gallery

The porous transport layer (PTL) is a vital component of the polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyser (PEMWE) as it is both a conduit for current distribution and mass transport. This study aims to examine the influence of the microstructure of the PTL on the performance of a PEMWE by the combination of ex-situ and in-situ techniques. Two PTLs with distinctly different mean pore diameter were characterized to determine key properties such as surface morphology, porosity, pore size dist... Read more

Current materials such nickel based superalloys cannot be used anymore and new materials are thus considered. For the hottest parts of jet engines, eutectic ceramics have potentially interesting features. In order to assess the thermo-mechanical properties of this material, numerical multi-scale analyses may be performed. Thus, a 3D finite element model was generated from a CT scan, representative of the microstructure and with a similar volume fraction. Effective elastic properties were calc... Read more

The thermal conductivity values of ordinary concrete can be adjusted to those prescribed in constructions by entraining air bubbles to reduce the density of concrete in order to achieve good thermal insulation. This paper concerns the analysis of air bubble distribution in concrete obtained by micro X-ray µCT (computed tomography) and correlates it with its thermal conductivity (k). (…) The results show that air-entrainment leads to viable use of this material as sealer to achieve good... Read more

The effect of ultrasonic melting processing on three-dimensional architecture of intermetallic phases and pores in two multicomponent cast Al-5.0Cu 0.6Mn-0.5 Fe alloys is characterized using conventional microscopy and synchrotron X-ray microtomography. (…) The results show that ultrasonic melt processing (USP) significantly reduce the volume fraction, grain size, interconnectivity, and equivalent diameter of the intermetallic phases in both alloys. The volume fraction of pores in both ... Read more

Coated paper is an example of a multi-layer porous medium, involving a coating layer along the two surfaces of the paper and a fibrous layer in the interior of the paper. The interface between these two media needs to be characterized in order to develop relevant modeling tools. After careful cutting of the paper, a cross section was imaged using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy. The resulting image was analyzed to characterize the coating layer and its transition to the fibrous ... Read more

Sediment plates (a type of lacquer peels) represent a sampling method whereby a thin plate of undisturbed sediments is obtained directly from the outcrop. A low-viscosity, hardening epoxy resin is applied to a freshly exposed cross-section of an unconsolidated deposit and impregnates a surface layer of the cross-section via capillary forces before solidifying. Upon hardening, a solid plate (0.5–5 cm thick and up to 2 m in length) of the sedimentary formation can be recovered and transported... Read more

Open-cell foams as structured catalyst supports are promising candidates for the design of high throughput catalytic processes. In this contribution, we employ a coupled numerical and experimental approach to assess the pressure losses in foams. (…) we explore virtually-generated foam models and their 3D printed replicas for a combined CFD and experimental study of fluid dynamics in foams. In particular, we focus our analysis on the low Reynolds number regime, where deviations between t... Read more

An elemental sulfur electrode was imaged with X-ray micro and nano computed tomography and segmented into its constituent phases. Morphological parameters including phase fractions, pore and particle size distributions were calculated directly from labelled image data, and flux based simulations were performed to determine the effective molecular diffusivity of the pore phase and electrical conductivity of the conductive carbon and binder phase, Deff and σeff, that can be used as an input fo... Read more

Multicomponent Bi-Mo-Fe-Co oxide catalysts prepared via flame spray pyrolysis were tested for selective propylene oxidation, showing high conversion (>70%) and selectivity (>85%) for acrolein and acrylic acid at temperatures of 330 ◦C. During extended time-on-stream tests (5–7 days), the catalysts retained high activity while undergoing diverse structural changes. This was evident on: (a) the atomic scale, using powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectros... Read more

X-ray micro-tomography is used to image the pore-scale configurations of fluid in a rock saturated with three phases – brine, oil and gas – mimicking a subsurface reservoir, at high pressure and temperature. We determine pore occupancy during a displacement sequence that involves waterflooding, gas injection and water re-injection. In the water-wet sample considered, brine occupied the smallest pores, gas the biggest, while oil occupied pores of intermediate size and is displaced ... Read more

Our novel procedure of injecting oil after reactive transport has revealed previously unidentified (ghost) regions of partially-dissolved grains of carbonate rock. X-ray micro-tomography and FIB-SEM techniques were used to identify and resolve these ghost regions in three-dimensions at the nm- to µm-scale. Considering the solid part of the ghost regions as macro (bulk) pore space can result in the overestimation of porosity and permeability predi... Read more

The majority of research into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) focuses on their crystalline nature. However, in recent research the vitrification of a number of MOFs has been revealed. We propose that the solid-liquid phase transitions involved in MOF-glass formation can provide unique opportunities for the creation of a new class of functional, stable and porous composite materials. Described herein is the design, synthesis, and characterisation of novel metal-organic framework (MOF) crystal-... Read more

The aim of this paper was to develop a model that can characterize the actual micropore structures in coal and gain an in-depth insight into water’s seepage rules in coal pores under different pressure gradients from a microscopic perspective. To achieve this goal, long-flame coals were first scanned by an X-ray 3D microscope; then, through a representative elementary volume (REV) analysis, the optimal side length was determined to be 60 μm; subsequently, by using Avizo software, the coal ... Read more

We describe in detail a methodology to estimate the effective elastic parameters of nodular cast iron, using micro-tomography in conjunction with multiscale finite elements. We discuss the adjustment of the image acquisition parameters, address the issue of the representative-volume choice, and present a brief discussion on image segmentation. In addition, the finite-element computational implementation developed to estimate the effective elastic parameters from segmented microstructural imag... Read more

A combination of 3D tomography techniques provides direct evidence that links the phase assemblage to the bio-corrosion behaviour of a magnesium-zinc-calcium (Mg-Zn-Ca) alloy. The true shape, connectivity and volume fraction of the components have been determined using focused ion beam (FIB) tomography. The mechanism of the effect of the components with different morphologies on biodegradation was studied with the help of FIB. Micro X-ray CT (MicroCT) was used to investigate the degradation o... Read more

Porous binary Ti-10Mo alloys were prepared using non-spherical titanium, molybdenum powders by the powder metallurgy (PM) space holder technique. Based on the three-dimensional analysis of porosity characteristics, a detailed assessment of the effects of porosity on mechanical properties and corrosion resistances in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was carried out. For comparison, PM-fabricated CP-Ti with 50.5% porosity sintered at 1200 °C for 2 h and dense Ti-10Mo alloy sintered at 1450 °C ... Read more

Laser-matter interactions in laser additive manufacturing (LAM) occur on short time scales (10^-6 – 10^-3 s) and have traditionally proven difficult to characterise. We investigate these interactions during LAM of stainless steel (SS316 L) and 13-93 bioactive glass powders using a custom built LAM process replicator (LAMPR) with in situ and operando synchrotron X-ray radiography. This reveals a range of melt track solidification phenomena as... Read more

Dense calcium caseinate dispersions can be transformed into hierarchically fibrous structures by shear deformation. This transformation can be attributed to the intrinsic properties of calcium caseinate. Depending on the dispersion preparation method, a certain amount of air gets entrapped in the sheared protein matrix. Although anisotropy is obtained in the absence of entrapped air, the fibrous appearance and mechanical anisotropy of the calcium caseinate materials are more pronounced with... Read more

This study presents a technique to directly characterize the carbon and binder domain (CBD) in lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery electrodes in three dimensions and use it to determine the effective transport properties of a LiNi_0.33Mn_0.33Co_0.33O₂ (NMC) electrode. X-ray nanocomputed tomography (nano-CT) is used to image an electrode composed solely of carbon and binder, whereas focused ion beam–scanning electron microscopy is used to analyze cross-sect... Read more

An improved understanding of 3D cracking in concrete can be achieved by multiscale experiments and numerical modelling based on realistic microstructures, for the development of materials with higher strength, durability, and fracture resistance.

Three-dimensional (3D) characterisation and modelling of cracking in concrete have been always of great importance and interest in civil engineering. In this study, an in situ microscale X-ray computed tomography (XCT) test was carried out to ... Read more

The near-threshold behavior of long cracks is evaluated using pre-cracked flat dogbone specimens of a commercial aluminum alloy in two heat treatment states. Once the threshold was known, the crack initially introduced by cyclic compression was propagated under load control with approximately
constant range of the stress intensity factor at values close to the threshold values. The 3D morphology of the crack and the spatial distribution of the primary precipitates obtained by µ-CT were... Read more