Quantifying Cohesive Sediment Dynamics for Advanced Environmental Modeling

Principal Investigator: Dr. Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz
Affiliation: University of California, Santa Barbara
This project is focused on the study of forces between particles that cluster together. The physical system studied consists of sediments of quartz and clay particles. By conducting the research on the ISS, it is possible to separate the forces acting on the particles over a short range (adhesive forces) versus those acting over a long range (cohesive forces). In microgravity, investigators can observe how particles cluster over long time scales without gravitational settling, which complicates measurements taken on Earth. The quartz/clay system is commonly found in a wide variety of environmental settings (such as rivers, lakes, and oceans) and plays an important role in technological efforts related to deep sea hydrocarbon drilling and carbon dioxide sequestration.