All Articles

Ring shear device up and running!

Author: jreber | Image: jreber

Nearly 2 years after its conception, the Structure Lab’s ring shear device is up and running. The soothing green glow is from a laser sheet illuminating brittle polymer spheres surrounded by viscous gel. Kyle Bogatz is conducting experiments on processes of grain fracturing in semi-brittle material (picture feldspar clasts in a semi-brittle granitoid). This represents a first step in observing this phenomenon in our lab.