Welcome to the Amira-Avizo Software Use Case Gallery

Maintaining the physical integrity of electrode microstructures in Li-ion batteries is critical to significantly extend their cycle life. This is especially important for high-capacity anode materials such as silicon, whose operational volume expansion exerts huge internal stress within the anode, resulting in electrode destruction and capacity fade. In this study, we demonstrate that by incorporating metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with carboxylate organic linkers into Si-based anodes, a s... Read more

Nickel-rich transition metal oxide materials […] are of great interest for achieving immediate improvements in the energy density of Li-ion batteries and for risk reduction within the Li-ion battery supply chain.
[…] An increase in Ni content in NMC materials leads to accelerated degradation […]. This potentially complicates their adoption in applications requiring extended cycle life such as in electric vehicles.

Recent developments in X-ray characterization to... Read more

Given the urgent need to move to low-carbon technologies, batteries are being increasingly used in a range of applications. Lithium-ion batteries are the most widely used chemistry, but to meet the growing demand, there is a need to move beyond lithium towards alternative battery chemistries. Metal–air batteries are a group of such battery alternatives that hold promise, especially for stationary power and flexible electronics applications.

However, barriers to their widespread adopt... Read more

Until March 2021, around 120 million coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infected cases and over 2.6 million deaths have been reported worldwide. […] Recent investigations have implied that face masks help to reduce the disease transmission and therefore slow down the growth of the epidemic curve. However, there are still ongoing debates on the efficacy of wearing masks […] since there is a general lack of information relating to the material structure of commonly used face masks.Read more

Scientists have for the first time captured the complex dynamics of particle movement in granular materials, helping to explain why mixed nuts often see the larger Brazil nuts gather at the top. This phenomenon, known as the ‘Brazil-nut effect’, has huge implications for industries where uneven mixing can critically degrade product quality. The findings could have vital impact on industries struggling with the phenomenon, such as pharmaceuticals and mining.

For th... Read more

Rapid implementation of global scale carbon capture and storage is required to limit temperature rises to 1.5 °C this century. Depleted oilfields provide an immediate option for storage, since injection infrastructure is in place and there is an economic benefit from enhanced oil recovery. To design secure storage, we need to understand how the fluids are configured in the microscopic pore spaces of the reservoir rock. We use high-resolution X-ray imaging to study the flow of oil, water and ... Read more

The high strength at moderate weight in combination with superior corrosion and fatigue properties makes carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) an attractive material for lightweight applications in aerospace. Nonetheless, besides several benefits, CFRP components also bear significant risks like a low resistance to impact damage. […] In this work, we present a multimodal approach to three-dimensionally quantify and visualize fiber orientation and resin-rich areas in carbon-fiber-reinf... Read more

The cleanliness of liquid steel is defined by the amounts of dissolved unwanted impurities and precipitated unwanted non-metallic phases.[…] Improving the cleanliness of the steel would mean a lower fraction of impurities in the final product. […] A novel approach, utilizing controlled synthetic inclusion/metal samples, has been developed to study the reactions between free inclusion-slag droplets and steel. The technique combines High-Temperature Confocal Scanning Laser Microscop... Read more

Continuous carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CCFRP) composites have been increasingly used in airframes and other high-end industrial products due to their superior mechanical properties such as high strength-weight and stiffness-weight ratios […] Additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) has shown potential to fabricate continuous fibre-reinforced composites with highly complex shapes in both 2D and 3D. Among them, Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing melts and deposits... Read more

Lithium ion battery failure occurs across multiple length scales. In this work, the properties of thermal failure and its effects on electrode materials were investigated in a commercial battery using a combination of accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC) and multi-length scale X-ray computed tomography (CT). ARC measured the heat dissipated from the cell during thermal runaway and enabled the identification of key thermal failure characteristics such as onset temperature and the rate of heat g... Read more

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) technology has attracted considerable interest in large-scale metallic components, but porosity and low deposition rate are the two dominating technical challenges in WAAM of aluminum alloy. In order to effectively solve these problems, a novel method of hot-wire arc additive manufacturing is used to fabricate aluminum alloy. Systematic studies are carried out to investigate the formation mechanism of the pores, the macro/microstructures, as well as the ... Read more

High market demands related to material quality and properties strongly influence redesigning of common safety loaded aluminum alloy castings. The quality of aluminum components and associated obtained mechanical properties are strongly dependent on the casting process and parameters, as well as on the chemical composition. Therefore, the redesigning of chemical composition of high-strength aluminum alloys becomes significant for safety critical structural components in automotive industry.Read more

Carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced significantly to limit the negative consequences of climate change. For this reason, fossil fuels must be replaced by renewable energy sources. However, wind and solar energy, for example, are sporadic sources and, thus, not inevitably available when needed. This results in periods of energy surplus and shortage, which are not necessarily predictable. Hence, energy storage concepts are required to compensate for these fluctuations, thereby retaining en... Read more

Material synthesis techniques have been historically used to engineer the mechanical and biological properties of biomaterials. Despite the overall success of this approach in different fronts […] there are still major unaddressed challenges due to the limited range of material properties that can be obtained through such synthesis techniques […]. Recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) have initiated a new paradigm, which could facilitate better control of mechanical and b... Read more

Nowadays, industrial processes demand materials with specific properties and localized microstructures to improve material performance. To satisfy particular needs, the development of materials with changing mechanical properties and/or microstructures along a preferential direction has been developed. These are called Functional Graded Materials (FGMs). Among these materials, a variation on the porosity along the part is very useful for different industrial applications, such as microfiltrat... Read more

Decommissioning of the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor Unit 4 is a top priority for the global community. Before such operations begin, it is crucial to understand the behaviour of the hazardous materials formed during the accident. Since those materials formed under extreme and mostly unquantified conditions, modelling alone is insufficient to accurately predict their physical, chemical and, predominantly, mechanical behaviour. Meanwhile, knowledge of the mechanical characteristics of thos... Read more

Since its invention and commercialization in the 1950s, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been known as a high-performance polymer successfully applied in diverse engineering systems ranging from strong ropes for naval demands and wear-resistant liners in bearings, transportation belts and heavy trucks in mines and quarries, through the lining of chemical vessels and disposable bags in bioreactors, to sophisticated products such as orthopaedic implants and replacements of ... Read more

Accurate detection, characterization, and prediction of defects has great potential for immediate impact in the production of fully-dense and defect free metal additive manufacturing (AM) builds. Accordingly, this paper presents Defect Structure Process Maps (DSPMs) as a means of quantifying the role of porosity as an exemplary defect structure in powder bed printed materials. Synchrotron-based micro-computed tomography (μSXCT) was used to demonstrate that metal AM defects follow predictable... Read more

In order to provide the population with consistent and science-based advice on preferred materials for face masks, we are characterizing the microstructure of different materials using X-ray microfocus computed tomography (microCT), and we use these datasets to simulate the pressure drop (i.e. measure for breathability). We validate our measurements with physically measured filter efficiency and pressure drop, and in this way, we try to develop a “virtual testing platform” for the charac... Read more

In recent years, due to the rapid development of industrial lightweight technology, composite materials based on fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) have been widely used in the industry. However, the environmental impact of the FRPs is higher each year. To overcome this impact, co-injection molding could be one of the good solutions. But how to make the suitable control on the skin/core ratio and how to manage the glass fiber orientation features are still significant challenges. In this study, ... Read more

Lithium aluminum titanium phosphate (LATP) is one of the materials under consideration as an electrolyte in future all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. In ceramic processing, the presence of secondary phases and porosity play an important role. In a presence of more than one secondary phase and pores, image analysis must tackle the difficulties about distinguishing between these microstructural features. In this study, we study the phase evolution of LATP ceramics sintered at temperatures b... Read more