Welcome to the Amira-Avizo Software Use Case Gallery

Biodegradable materials, such as collagen scaffolds, are used extensively in clinical medicine for tissue regeneration and/or as an implantable drug delivery vehicle. However, available methods to study biomaterial degradation are typically invasive, destructive, and/or non-volumetric. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate a new method for nondestructive, longitudinal, and volumetric measurement of collagen scaffold degradation. Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were covalently ... 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

The development of focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) techniques has allowed high-resolution 3D imaging of nanometre-scale porous materials. These systems are of important interest to the oil and gas sector, as well as for the safe long-term storage of carbon and nuclear waste. This work focuses on validating the accurate representation of sample pore space in FIB-SEM-reconstructed volumes and the predicted permeability of these systems from subsequent single-phase flow s... Read more

Despite the importance of studying the instability of delithiated cathode materials, it remains difficult to underpin the degradation mechanism of lithium-rich cathode materials due to the complication of combined chemical and structural evolutions. Herein, we use state-of-the-art electron microscopy tools, in conjunction with synchrotron X-ray techniques and first-principle calculations to study a 4d-element-containing compound, Li2Ru0.5Mn0.5O3. We find surprisingly, after cycling, ruthenium... 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

This paper used the X-ray three-dimensional (3D) microscope and acquired, through CT scanning, the 3D data of the long-frame coal sample from the Daliuta Coal Mine.

Then, the 3D datacube reconstructed from the coal’s CT scanning data was visualized with the use of Avizo, an advanced visualization software. By means of a gray-scale segmentation technique, the model of the coal’s micro-pore structure was extracted from the object region, and the precise characterization was then cond... Read more

The aim of this research is to model the deformation and fracture behaviour of brittle wafers often used in chocolate confectionery products.

Three point bending and compression experiments were performed on beam and circular disc samples respectively to determine the ‘apparent’ stress-strain curves in bending and compression. The deformation of the wafer for both these testing types was observed in-situ within an SEM. The wafer is modelled analytically and numerically as a composi... Read more

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

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

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

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 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

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

The effect of the defect size and morphology on the fatigue damage evolution was analysed in a recycled Al-Si-Cu alloy by micro-computed tomography and scanning electron microscopy. Fatigue tests were performed and the different crack initiation scenarios were characterized and classified. The interaction between shrinkage and gas pores was the key crack initiation mechanism and the ß-Al5FeSi particles did not play any role in the crack initiation phase. However, crack path analysis indicate... Read more

We introduce the application of microbial-induced calcite precipitation via the ureolytic soil bacterium Sporosarcina Pasteurii in freeze-dried form, as a means of enhancing overall MICP efficiency and reproducibility for geotechnical engineering applications. We show that the execution of urea hydrolysis and CaCO₃ precipitation persist as a “cell-free” mechanism upon the complete breakdown of rehydrated cell clusters. Further, strength and stiffness parameters of bio-cemented ... Read more

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) offers a possible solution to curb the CO₂ emissions from stationary sources in the coming decades, considering the delays in shifting energy generation to carbon neutral sources such as wind, solar and biomass.

The most mature technology for post-combustion capture uses a liquid sorbent, amine scrubbing. However, with the existing technology, a large amount of heat is required for the regeneration of the liquid sorbent, which... Read more

Mass transport can significantly limit the rate of reaction and lead to concentration polarization in electrochemical devices, especially under the conditions of high operating current density.

In this study we investigate hierarchically structured micro-tubular solid
oxide fuel cells (MT-SOFC) fabricated by phase inversion technique and quantitatively assess the mass transport and electrochemical performance improvement compared to a conventional tubular SOFC. We present pioneer... Read more

This study aims to correlate the active triple phase boundaries (TPBs) to the variation of as-prepared anode microstructures and Ni densifications based on the reconstructed 3D volume of an SOFC anode, providing a point of comparison with theoretical studies that reveal the relationship of TPBs and the material microstructure using randomly packed spheres models.

A simple chemical bath deposition is used to coat a complex porous ceramic scaffold with a conformal Ni layer.

The resulting composite is used as a solid oxide fuel cell electrode, and its electrochemical response is measured in humidified hydrogen. X‐ray tomography is used to determine the microstructural characteristics of the uncoated and Ni‐coated porous structure, which include the surface area to total volume, the radial pore size, and the size of the necks between the pores.... Read more