Reaction driven cracking with Sarah

There's a new experimental project occurring in the rock mechanics lab right now. Sarah Lambart, who is usually over in the petrology labs, is conducting some preliminary desktop studies of reaction-driven cracking that may ultimately be performed in the triax. Below, her sample material sits within a steel cylindrical die and she is using weightlifting equipment to determine if the reaction rate depends on stress (it does!)

 Another test determines the rate of the reaction with warm basic fluid (but without stress).

Strain gages attached to a copper jacket around the sample should capture volume expansion and cracking caused by a reaction of water and calcium oxide. 

 Transducers attached to the sample will monitor cracking. Sarah tests one out and observes the signal.