Interplay between chemical reactions and deformation

Our group has spent last decade developing quantification tools for systems under pressure gradients. It involves an equilibrium thermodynamic formulation for systems under pressure gradients or a coupled model for chemical diffusion and mechanical deformation in analogy to the studies of poroelasticity and thermoelasticity. With the new approaches, we can numerically simulate the effect of chemical diffusion on the development of a pressure gradient across a mineral grain and vice versa. Furthermore, by combining direct stress measurements by Raman spectroscopy and mechanical solutions for stress relaxation in a mineral, we were able to develop a unique method that allows stress relaxation to be calculated directly from natural samples.