| Title | 3-D Imaging Reveals Hidden Forces Behind Clogs, Jams, Avalanches, Earthquakes | |
| Date | Friday March 06 2015, @09:48PM | |
| Author | janrinok | |
| Topic | ||
| from the can-you-see-what-I-see? dept. | ||
Pick up a handful of sand, and it flows through your fingers like a liquid. But when you walk on the beach, the sand supports your weight like a solid. What happens to the forces between the jumbled sand grains when you step on them to keep you from sinking ? An international team of researchers collaborating at Duke University ( http://www.duke.edu ) have developed a new way to measure the forces inside materials such as sand, soil or snow under pressure.
Described in the March 5 issue of Nature Communications, the technique uses lasers coupled with force sensors, digital cameras and advanced computer algorithms to peer inside and measure the forces between neighboring particles in 3-D.
The new approach will allow researchers to better understand phenomena like the jamming of grain hoppers or the early warning signs of earthquakes and avalanches, said study co-author Nicolas Brodu, now at the French institute Inria.
[Abstract/Paper]: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150305/ncomms7361/full/ncomms7361.html
| Links |
printed from SoylentNews, 3-D Imaging Reveals Hidden Forces Behind Clogs, Jams, Avalanches, Earthquakes on 2023-07-03 09:04:50