Congratulations to Mahdiar Dargahi, finalist in NSERC’s « Science Exposed » competition!
Congratulations to Mahdiar Dargahi, a doctoral student in civil engineering under the supervision of Luca Sorelli, on being selected as a finalist in the prestigious « Science Exposed», competition organized by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)!
This competition highlights the beauty and complexity of science through captivating images. Among the 20 images selected this year, Mahdiar Dargahi’s image stands out for its ability to arouse curiosity, wonder and fascination for science.
We are delighted to see Mahdiar’s work and talent recognized at such a prestigious level, and we wish him the best of luck for the remainder of the competition.
Let’s support Mahdiar by voting for his image entitled « A micro-crafted marvel of fused silica » (Image 13) here!
Thanks to Mahdiar Dargahi for brilliantly representing the Renewable Materials Research Centre and the Laval University Faculty of Science and Engineering in this competition!
A micro-crafted marvel of fused silica
« Cement and concrete manufacturing generate about 10% of the world’s CO2 emissions, so there is a real need to find greener alternatives. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of cement paste, the binder agent in concrete, we applied a novel testing method using a versatile nanoindenter, an instrument that helps determine the mechanical properties of materials at the micro-scale. We performed several tests (e. g. creep—or slow deformation—, compression and splitting) on microscale-sized samples in the shape of cubes or prisms. When using a nanoindenter, we need to pay careful attention to the instrument’s thermal drift (temperature variation) since it may lead to inaccurate readings. To measure the drift, we fabricated a grid of micro-prisms (150×150×300 µm) made of fused silica using a specialized micro-dicing saw. The grid (shown on the image) served to measure thermal variation before conducting the main tests, therefore guaranteeing precision in the microscale mechanical property evaluations ».