Acquisition of Digital Imaging Capability for Shock Wave Laboratory

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1050269AsimowThis grant supports upgrade to the Caltech shock wave lab to allow for digital capture of projectile velocity and travel time of a shock in a solid or liquid sample. The high-speed Polaroid instant film currently used is no longer manufactured and their supply of the film is running low. In addition to a large-format CCD detector for the existing streak camera, other upgrades to the impact lab that will be supported include an X-ray image plate and scanning system for both of the large impact guns, a central breech to enable high-speed shots, fabrication of a new multichannel optical pyrometer, a Helium leak detector, a high-capacity piston-type vacuum pump, and a high-precision dual-range analytical balance. The requested enhancements will support NSF funded research on the characterization of the thermal Equation of State (EOS) of solid phases and liquid compositions of lower mantle phases and determination of the stability fields of these phases and measurement of the elasticity of transition metals at core conditions. The Caltech shock wave lab is unique in the U.S. academia as a lab dedicated to studying deep Earth geophysical problems with shock waves and the lab serves as an important training ground for the next generation geoscience and planetary science workforce.***