Concrete, bone and shale have one thing in common: their loadbearing mineral phase is a hydrated nanocomposite. Yet the link between material genesis, microstructure, and mechanical performance for these materials is still an enigma that has deceived many decoding attempts. In this article, we advance statistical indentation analysis techniques that make it possible to assess, in situ, the nanomechanical properties, packing density distributions, and morphology of hydrated nanocomposites. These techniques are applied to identify intrinsic and structural sources of anisotropy of hydrated nanoparticles: calcium-silicatehydrate (C-S-H), apatite, and clay. It is shown that C-S-H and apatite, the binding phase in, respectively, cement-based materials and bone, are intrinsically isotropic; this is most probably due to a random precipitation and growth process of particles in calcium oversaturated pore solutions, which can also explain the nonnegligible internanoparticle friction. In contrast, the load-bearing clay phase in shale, the sealing formation of most hydrocarbon reservoirs, is found to be intrinsically anisotropic and frictionless. This is indicative of a 'smooth' deposition and compaction history, which, in contrast to mineral growth in confined spaces, minimizes nanoparticle interlocking. In all cases, the nanomechanical behavior is governed by packing density distributions of elementary particles delimitating macroscopic diversity.

Natural composite materials are highly heterogeneous porous materials, with porosities that manifest themselves at scales much below the macroscale of engineering applications. A typical example is shale, the transverse isotropic sealing formation of most hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs. By means of a closed loop approach of microporomechanics modeling, calibration and validation of elastic properties at multiple length scales of shale, we show that the nanogranular nature of this highly heterogeneous material translates into a unique poroelastic signature. The self-consistent scaling of the porous clay stiffness with the clay packing density minimizes the anisotropy of the Biot pore pressure coefficients; whereas the intrinsic anisotropy of the elementary particle translates into a pronounced anisotropy of the Skempton coefficients. This new microporoelasticity model depends only on two shale-specific material parameters which neatly summarize clay mineralogy and bulk density, and which makes the model most appealing for quantitative geomechanics, geophysics and exploitation engineering applications.

Magnetic tubular implantable micro-robots are batch fabricated by electroforming. These microdevices can be used in targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery for ophthalmologic applications. These tubular shapes are fitted into a 23-gauge needle enabling sutureless injections. Using a 5-degree-of-freedom magnetic manipulation system, the microimplants are conveniently maneuvered in biological environments. To increase their functionality, the tubes are coated with biocompatible films and can be successfully filled with drugs.

SUMMARYAn inverse micromechanics approach allows interpretation of nanoindentation results to deliver cohesivefrictional strength behavior of the porous clay binder phase in shale. A recently developed strength homogenization model, using the Linear Comparison Composite approach, considers porous clay as a granular material with a cohesive-frictional solid phase. This strength homogenization model is employed in a Limit Analysis Solver to study indentation hardness responses and develop scaling relationships for indentation hardness with clay packing density. Using an inverse approach for nanoindentation on a variety of shale materials gives estimates of packing density distributions within each shale and demonstrates that there exists shale-independent scaling relations of the cohesion and of the friction coefficient that vary with clay packing density. It is observed that the friction coefficient, which may be interpreted as a degree of pressure-sensitivity in strength, tends to zero as clay packing density increases to one. In contrast, cohesion reaches its highest value as clay packing density increases to one. The physical origins of these phenomena are discussed, and related to fractal packing of these nanogranular materials.

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SUMMARYTraditional approaches for modeling the anisotropic elasticity response of the highly heterogeneous clay fabric in shale have mainly resorted to geometric factors such as definitions of particles shapes and orientations. However, predictive models based on these approaches have been mostly validated using macroscopic elasticity data. The recent implementation of instrumented indentation aimed at probing nanoscale mechanical behaviors has provided a new context for characterizing and modeling the anisotropy of the porous clay in shale. Nanoindentation experimental data revealed the significant contribution of the intrinsic anisotropy of the solid clay to the measured elastic response. In this investigation, we evaluate both the effects of geometric factors and of the intrinsic anisotropic elasticity of the solid clay phase on the observed anisotropy of shale at multiple length scales through the development of a comprehensive theoretical micromechanics approach. It was found that among various combinations of these sources of anisotropy, the elastic response of the clay fabric represented as a granular ensemble of aligned effective clay particles with spherical morphology and anisotropic elasticity compares satisfactorily to nanoindentation and ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements at nano-and macroscopic length scales, respectively. Other combinations of sources of anisotropy could yield comparable predictions, particularly at macroscopic scales, at the expense of requiring additional experimental data to characterize the morphology and orientations of particles.