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High-Precision MRI Reconstruction Algorithm for 3D Sphere Packings

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Abstract

Packings of granular materials are complex systems consisting of large sets of particles interacting via contact forces. Their internal structure is interesting for several theoretical and practical reasons, especially when the model system consists in a large amount (up to 105) of identical spheres. We herein present a method to process three-dimensional water density maps recorded in wet granular packings of mm-size spheres by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Packings of spheres with highly mono-dispersed diameter are considered and the implementation of an ad hoc reconstruction algorithm tailored for this feature allows for the determination of the position of each single sphere with an unprecedented precision (with respect to the scale of the system) while ensuring that all spheres are identified and no non-existing sphere is introduced in the reconstructed packing. The reconstruction of a 0.5 L sample containing about 2 × 104 spheres is presented to demonstrate the robustness of the method.

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Acknowledgments

R.B. and A.L.S. thank A. Magill for technical help. R.B. thanks S. Franchini and V. Paladino for useful discussions.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing financial interests. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grants no. PPOOP2-133562 and 200020-126534), the Centre d’Imagerie BioMédicale (CIBM) of the UNIL, UNIGE, HUG, CHUV, EPFL, the Leenards and Jeantet Foundations.

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Author notes

  1. A. L. Sellerio

    Present address: IENI-CNR, 20125, Milan, Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics of Biological Systems, EPFL, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    R. Balzan & A. Comment

  2. Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, EPFL, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    A. L. Sellerio & D. Mari

  3. Laboratoire de Chimie et Biochimie Toxicologiques et Pharmacologiques UMR8601, Universitè Paris Descartes, CNRS, PRES Paris Sorbonne Citè, 75006, Paris, France

    R. Balzan

  4. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133, Milan, Italy

    A. L. Sellerio

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  1. R. Balzan
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  2. A. L. Sellerio
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  3. D. Mari
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Correspondence to R. Balzan.

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Balzan, R., Sellerio, A.L., Mari, D. et al. High-Precision MRI Reconstruction Algorithm for 3D Sphere Packings. Appl Magn Reson 46, 633–642 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00723-015-0677-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00723-015-0677-0

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