US Patent Issued to University of South Carolina on April 29 for "Experimental set up for studying temperature gradient driven cracking" (South Carolina, Tennessee Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,288,320, issued on April 29, was assigned to University of South Carolina (Columbia, S.C.).

"Experimental set up for studying temperature gradient driven cracking" was invented by Travis Knight (Blythewood, S.C.), Sobhan Patnaik (Columbia, S.C.), Theodore Besmann (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) and Elwyn Roberts (Lugoff, S.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Described herein are systems and methods for imaging the top surface of a fuel pellet to observe the formation of radial cracks employing resistive heating to volumetrically heat the fuel pellet, but instead of passing the current axially through the pellet, electrodes were placed on the sides of a ...