X-ray Micro-Tomography Facility for Novel In-situ and 3D Characterization of Advanced Materials

The X-ray Micro-Tomography Facility for Novel In-situ and 3D Characterization of Advanced Materials, directed by Dr. Abbas Milani at UBC in collaboration with Dr. Andre Phillion, a former UBC faculty and current faculty at McMaster University, provides unique 3D images of the internal structure of many different types of materials. We work with engineering materials (metals, ceramics, composites, and paper products) and biological materials (e.g. lung tissue) in order to understand the processes that lead to defects and accordingly arrive at mitigation strategies. The facility has acquired an advanced in-situ thermo-mechanical testing capability, which can be used for coupled material testing-microtomographic analyses under different deformation modes and thermal boundary conditions.

Using the 3D images, we also create numerical simulations to investigate fluid flow and mechanical deformation in realistic 3D structures.