Previously I reported about Sarah's desktop reaction driven cracking experiments. Well, based on some really nice results that she is currently writing up, she's decided to scale up the experiment and perform it in the triaxial apparatus. First step is preparing the samples for loading. The most important thing to worry about is that they are leak tight, since she will be controlling both confining pressure and pore fluid pressure. Since she is going to be monitoring several more things than has been done in the past (including acoustic emissions and a furnace), she's got a lot of wires on there and keeping things tight was no trivial feat. After a couple of mishaps earlier in the week, on Friday she sealed up a sample, tested it for leaks on the bench top...
…and loaded it into the triax.
Ted monitored everything from the next room. After a nerve-racking hour or so of ramping up the confining pressure, it became clear that the procedure was a success! She now has the protocol for loading up the air tight samples and will commence the reaction driven cracking experiments. Go Sarah! And this all happens just in the nick of time: in June Sarah will be leaving us for UC Davis where she will start a lectureship position. Congratulations, Sarah!
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