MRI-R2: Acquisition of X-Ray Computed Tomography System for Imaging of Heterogeneous Materials

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0959066KudrolliClark U.Technical Summary: This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Microfocus x-ray computed tomography is a versatile and multidisciplinary tool for studying the internal structure of opaque materials. It will be used by the faculty to investigate heterogeneous materials including packing of spherical and non-spherical particles, geophysical flows, elasticity and crumpling, biological materials, locomotion, and organic superconductors. The instrument is capable of resolving features to less than 10 microns in 3-D and samples up to 150 mm in size, to allow unprecedented measurements to calculate strength, electric and heat conduction, fluid permeability, and electromagnetic scattering properties of heterogeneous materials from first principles. The x-ray instrument will have a significant impact on undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral student training, besides being available as a research and diagnostic tool for the scientific and engineering community in Worcester and neighboring areas. The instrument will be operated out of Clark which is a liberal arts university with approximately 2200 undergraduates and 800 graduate students, with a strong tradition of involving undergraduate students in active learning experiences. This proposed instrument will also complement a recent education grant by the Sherman-Fairchild foundation to bring major scientific equipment on imaging across spatial scales including an AFM and a radio telescope into an inquiry-based science curriculum at Clark University. The x-ray system will complement this equipment allowing researchers and students unprecedented access to the internal structure of materials.Layman Summary: This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).A microfocus x-ray computed tomography system is a versatile industrial instrument that can be used to investigate a range of scientific problems at the confluence of physics, materials sciences, and biological physics. It will enable a new series of transformative research both as a measurement and diagnostic tool at Clark University to calculate properties of opaque inhomogeneous materials from first principles. The x-ray instrument will have a significant impact on undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral student training, besides being available as a research and diagnostic tool for the scientific and engineering community in Worcester and neighboring areas. The instrument will be operated out of Clark which is a liberal arts university with approximately 2200 undergraduates and 800 graduate students, with a strong tradition of involving undergraduate students in active learning experiences. This proposed instrument will also complement a recent education grant by the Sherman-Fairchild foundation to bring major scientific equipment on imaging across spatial scales including an AFM and a radio telescope into an inquiry-based science curriculum at Clark University. The x-ray system will complement this equipment allowing researchers and students unprecedented access to the internal structure of materials.