MinPetPro is a part of the trans-regional research initiative that connects researchers from different disciplines and different universities (Mainz, Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Munich) to investigate and quantify magmatic systems from the source to the atmosphere.

See the official TeMaS web page for details: https://temas.uni-mainz.de/ 

FIND RUPTURE is a research project supported by VW foundation.

The key scientific question is:  What is the impact of the fast (<1 second) compression and decompression of supercritical fluids on mineral dissolution and precipitation during rupturing (e.g. seismic events or engineering material failure). 

In other words, we test how the quick expansion and compaction of fluids (related to rupture processes under high pressure) affects the dissolution and precipitation of minerals. In addition, we want to explore if commonly used engineering materials (e.g. ceramics) are subject similar effects.

Unique approach: We are developing a new experimental set-up attached to the piston-cylinder apparatus to systematically preform pressure jumps in a controlled manner, to generate a database that allows understanding this phenomenon.

Relevance & Perspective: Experimentally investigating this mechanism may lead to improvements of earthquake risk assessments by complementing the existing physical framework used for quantification of rupture processes.

Furthermore, understanding the fluid-mineral interaction during instantaneous decompression, may lead to the development of innovative manufacturing techniques. We envision new shaping/drilling techniques for heavy-duty ceramics and micro-scale additive manufacturing of layered materials (e.g. resistive coatings).

They wrote about this project: https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/newsroom/fluid-mineral-interactions-in-rock

This research combines numerical models and deformation experiments to quantify the effect of evolving sample geometry on the heterogeneous distribution of mechanical variables such as differential stress and mean stress.

We focus on experiments, where we can see clear evidence for phase transition or mineral reaction with large volumetric change (e.g. calcite aragonite transition as in Fig. below). We compare the phase distribution in the experiment and the variations in mechanical variables developed in the sample during the experiment. The variations in mechanical variables influence the spatial occurrence of a mineral reaction or a transformation.

Such an experimental work makes an important contribution to investigation of the effect of non-hydrostatic stress on phase transformation and thus help us to better understand observations in natural samples. Furthermore, it may lead to improvements of flow laws for heterogeneously deforming experiments.