I am pretty stoked that we had a chance to do a first set of experiments using multiscale/multiresolution 4D tomography at beamline 2BM at APS in November, where acquired three 4D datasets on three different scales from the same experiment simultaneously. The data volumes we produced pose some challenges, and the data are currently transferring over from the US. I am particularly interested in how characteristic length scales that are intrinsic to many materials (e.g. grain size & mineral distribution and fabrics in rocks, pores and organic structure in wood and biochar) will influence the upscale propagation of damage in specimens. Below a photo of the experimental setup we used to image evolving thermal damage in Westerly and Ailsa Craig granite. You can see the copper-clad heater with the water cooling coil on the outside and just below a sample on a long ceramic rod, waiting to be inserted into the furnace. To the left of the furnace, you can see the new imaging array, with three different lenses (covered by the lead shields) and two cameras on top of the array. The set up allows to dynamically change between the lenses and even the cameras, whereby the entire imaging procedure can be automated (i.e. a heating protocol can be coupled with imaging acquisition at the three magnifications at pre-set locations in the sample). This is definitely an extremely cool new tool for operando imaging that Viktor Nikitin and Pavel Shevchenko have put together, and I hope to get to use it more in the next years.
