Watching how ice breaks stuff

by Dr Robert Style (ETH, Zurich)

Tuesday 9 Mar 2021, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Stockholm

 The zoom link  :

https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/622224375

Meeting ID: 622 224 375

 

Freezing has huge potential to break things. For example, it damages soft tissue, causes soil to heave up, breaks roads, and can even shatter rocks. Typically people assume that this is due to the fact that ice expands as it freezes (remember the last time you forgot a bottle you were trying to cool quickly in the freezer). However, it turns out that much of ice’s destructive potential is instead caused by a process called cryosuction. I will explain how this works, and show how we are characterising this process with experiments that combine confocal imaging with traction force microscopy. This allows us to simultaneously image ice growth in microscopic channels, while simultaneously measuring the stresses that it exerts on its surrounding environment, giving new insight into the physics of the freezing process.