Shales are a composite of organic and inorganic materials with a microstructure that remains inhomogeneous down to sub-micron length scales. As part of a larger effort focusing on the strength, fracture and chemical properties this project aims to perform a series of fracture toughness, micro-indentation and acoustic measurements on samples of Marcellus shale. This project would involve design of the experimental and test plan, preparation of samples, running the experiments, data analysis and reporting.
Contact Professor Zehnder (ATZ2@cornell.edu) for more information.