Innovative system of sample loading developed for computed tomography
Employees of the Shell Mechanics Laboratory of the Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics and the X-ray and Computed Tomography Laboratory of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies have created an innovative system for sample loading.
This device, which has no domestic competitors, is designed to control physical and mechanical properties of materials, which is especially important in structures with complex internal structure.
“The tooling for the industrial tomograph makes it possible to influence the samples with compressive force during their scanning in the tomograph. The main task is to assess the change in physical and mechanical properties of materials or structures under the influence of operational loads. It is adapted to the peculiarities of the tomograph operation, which guarantees high quality of the obtained data,” informs Nikita Kharin, one of the authors of the development, Research Associate of the Laboratory of Shell Mechanics.
The device, according to Nikita, makes it possible to detect internal defects in materials that arise during their manufacture and to monitor how a particular material behaves under load.
“With the tooling we can diagnose defects such as delamination, cracks, channels and changes in the internal structure. This allows to more accurately assess the physical and mechanical characteristics of samples and predict their operational behavior,” Kharin specifies.
He added that there are overseas competitors to this device, but they are inferior to the one created at KFU.
“The maximum load of such foreign devices for CT scanner is 2-3 kilonewtons, which limits their use for strong materials. The maximum load that can be reproduced on our device is 10 kilonewtons. In addition, the imaging area of our system of sample loading is 130 millimeters, while the analogs have it much smaller. In addition, foreign devices cost about ten times more expensive,” notes the young scientist.
Recently the laboratory staff investigated the mechanical characteristics of FDM-printed porous PLA-plastic samples with different angles of pore ellipticity. Their results are presented in the paper.
“Initially, the numerical calculations did not coincide with the data from our experiments, but due to the use of the tooling we created, the presence of mesopores between PLA-plastic layers arising during the production and operation of the samples was revealed. After adjusting the numerical solution, we managed to achieve a match between the calculations and experimental data,” concludes Kharin.
Kseniya Spiridonova, Laboratory Researcher at the Laboratory of Shell Mechanics and head of a small design bureau, is one of the creators of the innovative system of sample loading.
“Work is now underway on its improved version,” she shares. “Thanks to built-in software, our device provides full automation of the loading process, which greatly simplifies experiments and allows flexible control of test parameters. Accuracy verification has shown minimal variation, making our tomography tooling versatile for research, including the analysis of composite and porous materials.”
