Earthquake prediction techniques provide a quick look at material failure analysis

Muscovite mica is used in many materials science applications and is known for its extremely flat and flaky layers, making it extremely vulnerable to hostile environmental conditions. Credit: Karen Dahmen

Materials scientists can now use knowledge from very common and well-established earthquake and avalanche statistics to determine how adverse environmental interactions affect the degradation and failure of materials used in advanced solar panels, geological carbon sequestration, and infrastructure such as buildings, roads, and structures. Bridges.

The new study, led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and Bucknell University, shows that the amount of stress-induced deformation applied locally to the muscovite mica surface is controlled by the physical state of the mineral's surface. It follows the same statistical dynamics observed in earthquakes and avalanches.

The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications.

When selecting materials for engineering applications, scientists want to know how the surface of that material will interact with the environment in which it will be used. Likewise, geologists want to understand how chemical reactions between minerals and groundwater along faults can slowly weaken rocks and lead to rapid bursts of mechanical failure due to a process called chemical-mechanical weakening.

“While previous attempts to measure the effect of chemical and mechanical weakness in engineering materials have relied on complex molecular dynamics models that require significant computational resources, our work instead focuses on bridging laboratory experiments and real-world phenomena such as earthquakes,” said graduate student Jordan Sickle. . who led the study with Illinois physics professor Karen Dahmen.

“Muscovite was chosen for this study mainly because of the extreme flatness of this material,” Dahmen said. “Each of its flaky layers is flat to the atomic level. Because of this flatness, the interaction between the surface of this material and its environment is of particular importance.”

To measure chemical and mechanical weakness on muscovite surfaces, Sandia National Laboratories exposed samples to different chemical conditions — dry, immersed in deionized water, and in salt solutions with pHs of 9.8 and 12. During exposure, an instrument known as a nanoindenter poked the surface of the metal material and recorded displacements or failures in the material under controlled mechanical loads.

The researchers found that in dry conditions, muscovite can deform more before failing compared to wet conditions. Upon failure, the specimens in each state release their stored elastic energy. The study indicates that when muscovite is exposed to a basic solution at pH 9.8 or 12, the top layer weakens, and less energy can be stored before failure occurs, which is reflected in the explosion statistics.

“The results of this work allow researchers to test material failure more quickly than with detailed, high-energy simulations,” Seckel said.

“By showing that we can observe the same results using already existing statistical models of earthquakes, researchers will be able to perform materials analysis with higher throughput than was previously possible.”

More information: Jordan J. Sickle et al, Measuring chemo-mechanical weakness in muscovite mica using a simple micromechanical model, Nature Communications (2024). doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53213-5

Provided by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Citation: Earthquake Forecasting Techniques Provide Quick Insight into Material Failure Analysis (2024, November 6) Retrieved November 6, 2024 from https://techxplore.com/news/2024-11-earthquake-techniques-quick-insight-material.html

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