Customer Spotlight: Visualizing the Invisible - ETH Zurich’s Breakthrough in Geophysical Flow Research

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Some of the most dramatic natural events on Earth, powder-snow avalanches, volcanic pyroclastic flows, and deep-sea turbidity currents, all fall under a category known as particle-laden gravity currents (PLGCs). Despite how common and impactful they are, these flows remain poorly understood, largely because they contain high concentrations of suspended particles that make the flow completely opaque. Traditional optical imaging simply cannot see through them.

However, researchers at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics (IFD), ETH Zurich are changing that.

Engineering a Window into Opaque Flows

The IFD research team has constructed a specialized dam-break flow facility designed to generate and study gravity currents across various slopes. To see inside these opaque particle clouds, the experiment is coupled with a high-energy X-ray imaging system, consisting of an X-ray source, image intensifier, and a high-speed camera.

This entire imaging system is mounted on a precision gantry motion platform driven by four DMM servo motors and DYN4 servo drives.

Why DMM-Tech? Smooth Motion. Precision Positioning. Built-In Safety.

The gantry is required to track rapidly evolving flows with tight positional accuracy and minimal vibration. The research team relied on several key features of the DMM system:

Feature

S-curve motion control

Limit-switch functionality

Brake-equipped vertical axes

Synchronized motion control

Impact

Smooth acceleration/deceleration reduces mechanical vibration and image distortion

Enables safe and reliable travel boundaries without external hardware complexity

Ensures safety during power loss and emergency stops

Provides stable scanning of fast, transient flow dynamics

Together, these capabilities allow the system to scan the spreading current in real time, capturing the internal particle distribution with exceptional clarity.

Advancing the Science of Natural Hazards

By visualizing how particles move and redistribute inside PLGCs, researchers aim to uncover why and how catastrophic flows spread. These insights could lead to better predictive models, hazard assessments, and early-warning systems.

We’re Proud to Support Research at the Frontiers of Science

To the team at ETH Zurich’s Institute of Fluid Dynamics, thank you for choosing DMM, and for pushing the boundaries of what is possible in experimental flow physics.

If you'd like to learn more about motion solutions for research and instrumentation, reply to this email or reach out at sales@dmm-tech.ca.

The DMM Technology Team