MRI: Acquisition of a Cold-Room Equipped Micro CT

0821056贝克该MRI奖项支持购置一台配备冷室的微型CT装置，用于研究冰、冻土和雪/雪中的结构。这项工作的智力价值在于，它将为一些环境问题提供重要的见解，如气候变化对极地地区的影响。 该装置将能够基于X射线吸收对三维微结构进行非破坏性重建。将使用冷适应微型CT仪器进行的研究的例子包括了解雪的变质作用，以便模拟积雪的影响，表征微观结构，特别是积雪的孔隙度、渗透性和微化学性质，这可以产生关于气候变化的重要信息，并检查了3-冰中脆性压缩破坏的三维特征，不仅为北冰洋冰盖的断裂提供了新的知识，地球的破裂？的外壳。 拟议活动的更广泛影响涉及对气候变化问题的理解和对学生的培训。 预计许多研究生将在他们的研究中使用该仪器，并鼓励本科生从事研究并了解这种仪器。 该仪器将被纳入PI每年讲授的课程的实验室部分，名为材料表征方法。 预计该仪器的寿命将为10年左右，该仪器将提供给达特茅斯和外部用户用于研究。 研究结果将广泛传播。

0821056BakerThis MRI award supports the acquisition of a cold-room equipped micro CT unit for the study of structures in ice, frozen soil and snow/firn. The intellectual merit of the work is that it will provide important insights on a number of environmental questions, such as the effects of climate change on the Polar Regions. The unit will enable non-destructive reconstruction of three dimensional micro-structure based on x-ray absorption. Examples of studies for which the cold-adapted micro-CT instrument will be used include understanding snow metamorphism in order to model the effects of snow-pack, characterizing the microstructure, particularly the porosity, permeability and micro-chemistry of firn, which can yield critical information on climate change, and examining the 3-D character of brittle compressive failure in ice to provide new knowledge about not only the fracture of the ice cover on the Arctic Ocean but also new insights into rupture of the Earth?s crust. The broader impacts of the proposed activity relate to both understanding issues to do with climate change and the training of students. It is expected that many graduate students will use the instrument in their research and undergraduate students will be encouraged to engage in research and learn about instrumentation of this kind. The instrument will be incorporated into the laboratory component of a course taught by the PI every year entitled Methods of Materials Characterization. It is expected that the lifetime of this instrument will be on the order of 10 years and the instrument will be made available to both Dartmouth and outside users for their research. Results of the research will be widely disseminated.