Wilson Espinoza
Texas State University, TX·Earth & Environmental Science
Rocks can weaken and crack when they are heated or go through repeated cycles of heating and cooling. This matters for drilling deep wells, storing nuclear waste, running power plants and mines, and predicting landslides or collapses of rock, frozen ground and snow-covered slopes.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Engineering
- Topics
rock mechanics
rock degradation
thermal fracturing
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Measure how the strength of individual minerals contributes to overall rock strength, using nanoscale experiments on mineral interactions.
- Correlate mineral orientations with rock mechanical properties through nanoscale and mesoscale testing of pure minerals such as albite, biotite and quartz and of rock composites.
- Track how boundaries between minerals and fracturing mechanisms evolve in granitic rocks under elevated and cyclic temperatures, using nanoscale testing at these boundaries and microscopy of fractures.
- Build simple numerical models that refine boundary conditions for mineral interactions in granite, to link mineral-scale measurements to rock degradation.
More about the research
A rock is a mix of mineral grains, yet how each mineral and the contacts between grains control a rock's strength under heat is poorly understood. This project aims to connect rock mechanics with geology by studying rock breakdown mineral by mineral.
Why it matters
Knowing which mineral-level factors weaken rock under heat could make drilling through deep formations easier for energy and mineral extraction, nuclear storage and mining. It could also improve hazard assessment for unstable rock, frozen ground and snow-covered slopes. The methods may transfer to composite materials such as concrete, which crack under seasonal temperature changes.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Johannes Haemmerli
Washington State University, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
Identify which accessory minerals, such as zircon, apatite, allanite and titanite, take part in mineral reactions caused by deformation in granitic rocks, using electron probe microanalysis.
Anne Grunow
Ohio State University, OH·Earth & Environmental Science
Curate and expand the Polar Rock Repository collection, acquiring roughly 15,000 new geological samples over five years, including cores from the RAID and Winkie drilling operations and samples from polar cruises.
Liangping Li
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, SD·Earth & Environmental Science
Model how hydraulic fractures spread during stimulation of deep rock, using Idaho National Laboratory's network flow-discrete element model and experiments at the Sanford Underground Research Facility.
The school
Texas State University: 8 labs on PI Pages, $165M a year on research, 71 research doctorates a year.
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