New method to identify microscopic failure (Update)If you’ve never had the plumber to your
New method to identify microscopic failure (Update)If you’ve never had the plumber to your house, you’ve been lucky. Pipes can burst due to a catastrophic event, like subzero temperatures, or time and use can take a toll, wearing away at the materials with small dings and dents that aren’t evident until it’s too late.But what if there were a way to identify those small, often microscopic failures before you had to call for help?The Autonomous Materials Systems (AMS) Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology has recently found a new way to identify microscopic damage in polymers and composite materials before total failure occurs.“Autonomous indication of small cracks has exciting potential to make structures safer and more reliable by giving time to intervene and repair or replace the damaged region prior to catastrophic failure,” said Nancy Sottos, professor of materials science and engineering, and one of the authors of “A Robust Damage-Reporting Strategy for Polymeric Materials Enabled by Aggression-Induced Emission,” recently published in ACS Central Science. The paper is part of a research project selected as a finalist for the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Global Awards 2016.Read more. -- source link
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