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Purpose A 3D printer was used to realise compartmental dosage forms containing multiple active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) formulations. This work demonstrates the microstructural characterisation of 3D printed solid dosage forms using X-ray computed microtomography (XμCT) and terahertz pulsed imaging (TPI). Methods Printing was performed with either polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or polylactic acid (PLA). The structures were examined by XμCT and TPI. Liquid self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) formulations containing saquinavir and halofantrine were incorporated into the 3D printed compartmentalised structures and in vitro drug release determined. Results A clear difference in terms of pore structure between PVA and PLA prints was observed by extracting the porosity (5.5% for PVA and 0.2% for PLA prints), pore length and pore volume from the XμCT data. The print resolution and accuracy was characterised by XμCT and TPI on the basis of the computer-aided design (CAD) models of the dosage form (compartmentalised PVA structures were 7.5 ± 0.75% larger than designed; n  = 3). Conclusions The 3D printer can reproduce specific structures very accurately, whereas the 3D prints can deviate from the designed model. The microstructural information extracted by XμCT and TPI will assist to gain a better understanding about the performance of 3D printed dosage forms.

This paper investigates the particle breakage behaviour of a carbonate sand based on single-particle compression experiments with in situ X-ray microtomography scanning (μCT) and a combined finite–discrete element method (FDEM). Specifically, X-ray μCT is applied to extract the information on grain morphology and intra-particle pores of carbonate sand particles to establish an FDEM model. The model is first calibrated by comparing the simulation results of two carbonate sand grains with the corresponding single-particle compression experiment results and then applied to model the stress evolution, cracking propagation and failure of other carbonate sand particles under single-particle compression. To study the influence of intra-particle pores, FDEM modelling of carbonate sands with completely filled intra-particle pores is also performed. The particle strength of carbonate sands both with and without pore filling is found to follow a Weibull distribution, with that of the sand with pore filling being considerably higher. This behaviour is associated with lower stress concentration, resulting in later crack development in the pore-filled sand than in the sand without pore filling. The cracks are found to usually pass through the intra-particle pores. Consequently, a larger proportion of particles fail in the fragmentation mode in the sand without pore filling.

Main conclusionSpatial organization and connectivity of wood rays in Pinus massoniana was comprehensively viewed and regarded as anatomical adaptions to ensure the properties of rays in xylem.Spatial organization and connectivity of wood rays are essential for understanding the wood hierarchical architecture, but the spatial information is ambiguous due to small cell size. Herein, 3D visualization of rays in Pinus massoniana was performed using high-resolution μCT. We found brick-shaped rays were 6.5% in volume fractions, nearly twice the area fractions estimated by 2D levels. Uniseriate rays became taller and wider during the transition from earlywood to latewood, which was mainly contributed from the height increment of ray tracheids and widened ray parenchyma cells. Furthermore, both volume and surface area of ray parenchyma cells were larger than ray tracheids, so ray parenchyma took a higher proportion in rays. Moreover, three different types of pits for connectivity were segmented and revealed. Pits in both axial tracheids and ray tracheids were bordered, but the pit volume and pit aperture of earlywood axial tracheids were almost tenfold and over fourfold larger than ray tracheids. Contrarily, cross-field pits between ray parenchyma and axial tracheids were window-like with the principal axis of 31.0 μm, but its pit volume was approximately one-third of axial tracheids. Additionally, spatial organization of rays and axial resin canal was analyzed by a curved surface reformation tool, providing the first evidence of rays close to epithelial cells inward through the resin canal. Epithelial cells had various morphologies and large variations in cell size. Our results give new insights into the organization of radial system of xylem, especially the connectivity of rays with adjacent cells.

In this study, to meet the development and application requirements for high-strength and high-toughness energetic structural materials, a representative volume element of a TA15 matrix embedded with a TaZrNb sphere was designed and fabricated via diffusion bonding. The mechanisms of the microstructural evolution of the TaZrNb/TA15 interface were investigated via SEM, EBSD, EDS, and XRD. Interface mechanical property tests and in-situ tensile tests were conducted on the sphere-containing structure, and an equivalent tensile-strength model was established for the structure. The results revealed that the TA15 titanium alloy and joint had high density and no pores or cracks. The thickness of the planar joint was approximately 50–60 μm. The average tensile and shear strengths were 767 MPa and 608 MPa, respectively. The thickness of the spherical joint was approximately 60 μm. The Zr and Nb elements in the joint diffused uniformly and formed strong bonds with Ti without forming intermetallic compounds. The interface exhibited submicron grain refinement and a concave–convex interlocking structure. The tensile fracture surface primarily exhibited intergranular fracture combined with some transgranular fracture, which constituted a quasi-brittle fracture mode. The shear fracture surface exhibited brittle fracture with regular arrangements of furrows. Internal fracture occurred along the spherical interface, as revealed by advanced in-situ X-ray microcomputed tomography. The experimental results agreed well with the theoretical predictions, indicating that the high-strength interface contributes to the overall strength and toughness of the sphere-containing structure. [Display omitted] •High-strength mechanical properties of the interface of the TA15/TaZrNb MEA composite fabricated via diffusion bonding.•Investigation on the fracture mechanisms of the RVE embedded with a sphere by in-situ μCT tensile tests.•A tensile-strength equivalent model for the RVE embedded with a sphere is established.•The concave–convex interlocking structure at the interface plays a crucial role in resisting failure.

Multiphase heterogeneity significantly affects mechanical and micro-cracking properties of geomaterials. Heterogeneity representations of geomaterials, however, can bring out fatal errors for cracking behavior investigations due to inaccurate characterizations of multiphase matrixes. This work aims to deeply characterize microscopic heterogeneity in rocks represented by digital multiphase matrixes, and to study their effects on cracking properties of geomaterials. X-ray μ-Computed Tomography (μCT) imaging under the same physical field of view is employed to obtain multiphase microstructures of sandstone with different resolutions. Digital colour difference segmentation (DCDS) and the coupling multiple point statistics-marching cube (MPS-MC) algorithms are applied to accurately characterize three-dimensional (3D) multiphase heterogeneity of rocks. Digital simulations coupled with uniaxial compression are conducted to study multiphase heterogeneity effects on micromechanics and cracking behaviors. Results show that with increasing resolution and voxel scale, heterogeneity index increases. Peak stress and crack ratio increase with increasing heterogeneity index, and the relative errors between experimental and numerical stresses are all less than 5% when the voxel is larger than 3003. Micro-pores extremely improve damage of multiphase microstructures, and the transgranular cracks initiate first, and then intergranular cracks initiate due to large heterogeneity of microscopic elements between micro-pores and microscopic interfacial transition zones (ITZs) and similar strength heterogeneity of microscopic elements in micro-grains. The proposed digital-analysis framework is effective to evaluate multiphase heterogeneity effects on mechanical and cracking responses in various engineering projects.HighlightsComplete microscopic multiphase element heterogeneity is established to characterize heterogeneous geomaterials.Voxel scale and imaging resolution effects on characterizing microscopic multiphase heterogeneity are analyzed.Microscopic cracking and micromechanical responses of geomaterials are studied.

Understanding multiphase flow properties is essential for assessing and exploiting coals. These properties depend on the 3D pore space information, i.e. geometry and topology. However, determining the geometric and topological properties in coals are still challenging due to the complicated pore structures comprising several length scales. Studying pore scale structures in coals in a continuous range across over several length scales and integrating these information are necessary to increase the understanding of the role of pore structure on transport properties. Most of the current modeling methods are usually based on one or two experimental methods with limited and insufficient information. In this work, CO2 adsorption, N2 adsorption, MIP, X-ray µ-CT and FIB–SEM are used to study the pore structure characteristics of coal samples cored from the No. 9 coal seam of upper Permian Longtan formation at the Longfeng mine, China. The porosity, pore surface area, pore size distribution, connectivity and pore shapes measured by different methods are analyzed. We show that a combination of these techniques provides a richer picture of pore structure in coals. The obtained 3D pore structure can be applied to predict transport properties which are important to capture coal mine methane (CMM) and optimize field development. The results will also be helpful for the gas control in coal mines.

The three-dimensional (3D) structures of pores directly affect the CH 4 flow. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the 3D spatial structure of pores and to simulate the CH 4 flow with the connected pores as the carrier. The result shows that the equivalent radius of pores and throats are 1–16 μm and 1.03–8.9 μm, respectively, and the throat length is 3.28–231.25 μm. The coordination number of pores concentrates around three, and the intersection point between the connectivity function and the X -axis is 3–4 μm, which indicate the macro-pores have good connectivity. During the single-channel flow, the pressure decreases along the direction of CH 4 flow, and the flow velocity of CH 4 decreases from the pore center to the wall. Under the dual-channel and the multi-channel flows, the pressure also decreases along the CH 4 flow direction, while the velocity increases. The mean flow pressure gradually decreases with the increase of the distance from the inlet slice. The change of mean flow pressure is relatively stable in the direction horizontal to the bedding plane, while it is relatively large in the direction perpendicular to the bedding plane. The mean flow velocity in the direction horizontal to the bedding plane ( Y -axis) is the largest, followed by that in the direction horizontal to the bedding plane ( X -axis), and the mean flow velocity in the direction perpendicular to the bedding plane is the smallest.

The fracture behavior of the Cu/Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Sn (SAC305)/Cu solder joint was investigated by conducting tensile tests with in situ X-ray micro-computed tomography (μ-CT) observation, and finite element (FE) simulation. The tensile fracture process of solder joints with a real internal defect structure was simulated and compared with the experimental results in terms of defect distribution and fracture path. Additionally, the stress distribution around the defects during the tensile process was calculated. The experimental results revealed that the pores near the intermetallic compound (IMC) layers and the flaky cracks inside the solder significantly affected the crack path. The aggregation degree of the spherical pores and the angle between the crack surface and the loading direction controlled the initiation position and propagation path of the cracks. The fracture morphology indicated that the fracture of the IMC layer was brittle, while the solder fracture exhibited ductile tearing. There were significant differences in the fracture morphology under tensile and shear loading.

This paper aims at studying spatial variations and voxel scale effects on digital-permeability of sandstone reservoirs at small-scale. X-ray μ-CT imaging is applied to capture various pore-structures. Digital pore-scale analysis is employed to quantitatively analyze voxel scale effects on microstructures with connective pore space and invalid pores. The coupling multipoint statistics-marching cube (MPS-MC) three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction is used to construct 3D virtual micro-channel models with connective seepage channels. Pore network numerical simulations with valid realistic geometries are conducted to deeply understand voxel scale effects on microscopic hydraulic properties of sandstone reservoirs. The results show that digital porosity, micro-pore and micro-grain size gradually become stable with a voxel scale larger than 300 3 . The spatial variation of permeability and voxel scale effects relates extremely to the seepage index and digital porosity. As digital porosity is less than 30%, the seepage index increases with an exponential manner, and as digital porosity is larger than 30%, it decreases with a logarithm manner. The permeability is easy to evaluate by the established logarithm relation between the permeability and seepage index with relative errors all less than 5%. The proposed permeability-seepage index in the digital analysis framework provides excellent approaches to effectively evaluate the hydraulic properties of rock reservoirs.

Background High grain breakage rate is the main limiting factor encountered in the mechanical harvest of maize grain. X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT) scanning technology could be used to obtain the three-dimensional structure of maize grain. Currently, the effect of maize grain structure on the grain breakage rate, determined using X-ray μCT scanning technology, has not been reported. Therefore, the objectives of this study are: (i) to obtain the shape, geometry, and structural parameters related to the breakage rate using X-ray μCT scanning technology; (ii) to explore relationships between these parameters and grain breakage rate. Result In this study, 28 parameters were determined using X-ray μCT scanning technology. The maize breakage rate was mainly influenced by the grain specific surface area, subcutaneous cavity volume, sphericity, and density. In particular, the breakage rate was directly affected by the subcutaneous cavity volume and density. The maize variety with high density and low subcutaneous cavity volume had a low breakage rate. The specific surface area (r = 0.758*), embryo specific surface area (r = 0.927**), subcutaneous cavity volume ratio (0.581*), and subcutaneous cavity volume (0.589*) of maize grain significantly and positively correlated with breakage rate. The cavity specific surface area (− 0.628*) and grain density (− 0.934**) of maize grain significantly and negatively correlated with grain breakage rates. Grain shape (length, width, thickness, and aspect ratio) positively correlated with grain breakage rate but the correlation did not reach statistical significance. The susceptibility of grain breakage increased when kernel weight decreased (− 0.371), but the effect was not significant. Conclusions The results indicate that X-ray μCT scanning technology could be effectively used to evaluate maize grain breakage rate. X-ray μCT scanning technology provided a more precise and comprehensive acquisition method to evaluate the shape, geometry, and structure of maize grain. Thus, data gained by X-ray μCT can be used as a guideline for breeding resistant breakage maize varieties. Grain density and subcutaneous cavity volume are two of the most important factors affecting grain breakage rate. Grain density, in particular, plays a vital role in grain breakage and this parameter can be used to predict the breakage rate of maize varieties.