Many materials are heterogeneous. Examples include natural rocks, manufacturing materials and biological tissues. This Ideas Forum workshop aims to bring together participants interested in characterising complex heterogeneous materials via a combination of multi-scale imaging and image-based modelling.

The first part of the event will host two introductory talks by Dr Lin Ma (Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science) and Dr Igor Chernyavsky (Department of Mathematics). The second part of the workshop will consist of 2-minute pitches from the participants who will have two minutes to present work or raise a challenge in the area of multi-scale imaging, modelling, or both. The pitches will be followed by a group discussion. (Registration for a pitch is now closed).

Dr Lin Ma will talk about multi-scale characterisation of porous rocks and dynamic imaging of their reactions under complex subsurface conditions. The talk will outline how advanced imaging techniques can be utilised to characterise multi-physics and multi-phase storage and transport processes in coarse- and fine-grain sediments and minerals. A combination of X-ray computed tomography (CT), focused ion beam (FIB) and TEM tomography span characteristic lengthscales of up to six orders of magnitude (nm to mm), allowing to reconstruct large pore networks for shales/mudstones. The evolution of rocks under realistic high-temperature and pressure reactive subsurface conditions could be captured with state-of-the-art in-situ chemical, mechanical and flow imaging techniques, covering the range from milliseconds to weeks. This detailed spatio-temporal characterisation of subsurface contributes to future renewable energy storage and many other applications.

Dr Igor Chernyavsky will present image-based modelling of complex biological tissues, exemplified by the human placenta. This talk will summarise recent progress in massively multi-scale 3D microscopy (covering the range of µm to cm) and its assimilation into mathematical models. The models explore a relationship between tissue structure and function, quantify the associated uncertainty and demonstrate universality of upscaled approximations for a wide class of solutes and transport regimes. The developed methodology is also applicable to multi-scale characterisation of solute exchange in other complex microvascular systems.

This is the seventh seminar in The University of Manchester at Harwell Ideas Forum Imaging series. The aim of this series is to increase networking of academics and researchers across the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the National Laboratories. In doing so, we hope to share expertise and support new collaborations and grant applications.

This seminar will be recorded and available to watch after the event. A zoom link will be sent to attendees the day before the seminar.