Composite metamaterials are periodic metal-dielectric structures operating at wavelengths larger than the structure period. If properly designed these structures behave as homogeneous media described by effective permittivity and permeability parameters. These effective parameters can be designed to take values in domains that are not available in naturally occurring media; notably it is possible to design composite metamaterials with simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability, or, in other words, with a negative refractive index. However, in many experimental or numerical studies it is far from obvious that the use of a homogeneous model is justified for a given structure at a given wavelength. This issue is often glossed over in the literature. <br />In this work I take a detailed look at the fundamental assumptions on which effective medium models rely and put forward a method for determining frequency domains where a given structure may or may not be accurately described by homogeneous effective medium parameters. This work opens the door to a more detailed understanding of the transition between homogeneous and inhomogeneous behavior in composite metamaterials, in particular by introducing the novel notions of custom made effective medium model, and of meta-photonic crystal.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and its onset is highly incident in the lungs, with very low long-term survival rates. Chemotherapy plays a significant role for lung cancer treatment, and pulmonary delivery may be a potential route for anticancer drug delivery to treat lung tumors. Coenzyme Q₁₀ (CoQ₁₀) is a poorly-water soluble compound that is being investigated for the treatment of carcinomas. In this work, we hypothesize that formulations of CoQ10 may be developed for pulmonary delivery with a satisfactory pharmacokinetic profile that will have the potential to improve a pharmacodynamic response when treating lung malignancies. The formulation design was to use a vibrating-mesh nebulizer to aerosolize aqueous dispersions of CoQ₁₀ stabilized by phospholipids physiologically found in the lungs. In the first study, a method was developed to measure the surface tension of liquids, a physicochemical property that has been shown to influence the aerosol output characteristics from vibrating-mesh nebulizers. Subsequently, this method was used, together with analysis of particle size distribution, zeta potential, and rheology, to further evaluate the factors influencing the capability of this nebulizer system to continuously and steadily aerosolize formulations of CoQ₁₀ prepared with high pressure homogenization. The aerosolization profile (nebulization performance and in vitro drug deposition of nebulized droplets) of formulations prepared with soybean lecithin, dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC), dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and distearoylphosphatidylcholine (DSPC) were evaluated. The rheological behavior of these dispersions was found to be the factor that may be indicative of the aerosolization output profile. Finally, the pulmonary deposition and systemic distribution of CoQ₁₀ prepared as DMPC, DPPC, and DSPC dispersions were investigated in vivo in mice. It was found that high drug amounts were deposited and retained in the mouse lungs for at least 48 hours post nebulization. Systemic distribution was not observed and deposition in the nasal cavity occurred at a lower scale than in the lungs. This body of work provides evidence that CoQ₁₀ may be successfully formulated as dispersions to be aerosolized using vibrating-mesh nebulizers and achieve high drug deposition in the lungs during inhalation. / text

The present thesis is devoted to the homogenization of certain elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations by means of appropriate generalizations of the notion of two-scale convergence. Since homogenization is defined in terms of H-convergence, we desire to find the H-limits of sequences of periodic monotone parabolic operators with two spatial scales and an arbitrary number of temporal scales and the H-limits of sequences of two-dimensional possibly non-periodic linear elliptic operators by utilizing the theories for evolution-multiscale convergence and λ-scale convergence, respectively, which are generalizations of the classical two-scale convergence mode and custom-made to treat homogenization problems of the prescribed kinds. Concerning the multiscaled parabolic problems, we find that the result of the homogenization depends on the behavior of the temporal scale functions. The temporal scale functions considered in the thesis may, in the sense explained in the text, be slow or rapid and in resonance or not in resonance with respect to the spatial scale function. The homogenization for the possibly non-periodic elliptic problems gives the same result as for the corresponding periodic problems but with the exception that the local gradient operator is everywhere substituted by a differential operator consisting of a product of the local gradient operator and matrix describing the geometry and which depends, effectively, parametrically on the global variable.

This work describes three alternative processes for producing microfibrillated cellulose (MFC; also referred to as cellulose nanofibrils, CNF) in which bleached pulp fibres are first pretreated and then homogenized using a high-pressure homogenizer. In one process, fibre cell wall delamination was facilitated by a combined enzymatic and mechanical pretreatment. In the two other processes, cell wall delamination was facilitated by pretreatments that introduced anionically charged groups into the fibre wall, by means of either a carboxymethylation reaction or irreversibly attaching carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) to the fibres. All three processes are industrially feasible and enable energy-efficient production of MFC. Using these processes, MFC can be produced with an energy consumption of 500–2300 kWh/tonne. These materials have been characterized in various ways and it has been demonstrated that the produced MFCs are approximately 5–30 nm wide and up to several microns long. The MFCs were also evaluated in a number of applications in paper. The carboxymethylated MFC was used to prepare strong free-standing barrier films and to coat wood-containing papers to improve the surface strength and reduce the linting propensity of the papers. MFC, produced with an enzymatic pretreatment, was also produced at pilot scale and was studied in a pilot-scale paper making trial as a strength agent added at the wet-end for highly filled papers. / <p>QC 20150126</p>

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and its onset is highly incident in the lungs, with very low long-term survival rates. Chemotherapy plays a significant role for lung cancer treatment, and pulmonary delivery may be a potential route for anticancer drug delivery to treat lung tumors. Coenzyme Q₁₀ (CoQ₁₀) is a poorly-water soluble compound that is being investigated for the treatment of carcinomas. In this work, we hypothesize that formulations of CoQ10 may be developed for pulmonary delivery with a satisfactory pharmacokinetic profile that will have the potential to improve a pharmacodynamic response when treating lung malignancies. The formulation design was to use a vibrating-mesh nebulizer to aerosolize aqueous dispersions of CoQ₁₀ stabilized by phospholipids physiologically found in the lungs. In the first study, a method was developed to measure the surface tension of liquids, a physicochemical property that has been shown to influence the aerosol output characteristics from vibrating-mesh nebulizers. Subsequently, this method was used, together with analysis of particle size distribution, zeta potential, and rheology, to further evaluate the factors influencing the capability of this nebulizer system to continuously and steadily aerosolize formulations of CoQ₁₀ prepared with high pressure homogenization. The aerosolization profile (nebulization performance and in vitro drug deposition of nebulized droplets) of formulations prepared with soybean lecithin, dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC), dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and distearoylphosphatidylcholine (DSPC) were evaluated. The rheological behavior of these dispersions was found to be the factor that may be indicative of the aerosolization output profile. Finally, the pulmonary deposition and systemic distribution of CoQ₁₀ prepared as DMPC, DPPC, and DSPC dispersions were investigated in vivo in mice. It was found that high drug amounts were deposited and retained in the mouse lungs for at least 48 hours post nebulization. Systemic distribution was not observed and deposition in the nasal cavity occurred at a lower scale than in the lungs. This body of work provides evidence that CoQ₁₀ may be successfully formulated as dispersions to be aerosolized using vibrating-mesh nebulizers and achieve high drug deposition in the lungs during inhalation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:07:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PedroLSF_DISSERT.pdf: 5571248 bytes, checksum: d237019829d37099df0ac47168668556 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-07-21 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / Composite laminates with plies in different directions finely dispersed are classified as homogenized. The expected benefits of homogenization include increased mechanical strength, toughness and resistance to delamination. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of stacking sequence on the tensile strength of laminates. Composite plates were fabricated using unidirectional layers of carbon/epoxy prepreg with configurations [903/303/-303]S and [90/30/-30]3S. Specimens were subjected to tensile and open hole tension (OHT) tests. According to the experimental results, the mean values of strength for the homogenized laminates [90/30/-30]3S were 140% and 120% greater for tensile and OHT tests, respectively, as compared to laminates with configuration [903/303/-303]S. The increase in tensile strength for more homogenized laminates was associated with the increment in interlaminar interfaces, which requires more energy to produce delamination, and the more complicated crack propagation through plies with different orientations. OHT strength was not affected by the presence of the hole due to the predominance of the interlaminar shear stress in relation to the stress concentration produced by the hole / Laminados formados por l?minas com diferentes orienta??es, finamente dispersas, s?o classificados como homogeneizados. Os benef?cios esperados da homogeneiza??o incluem aumento de resist?ncia mec?nica, da tenacidade e da resist?ncia ? delamina??o. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito da sequ?ncia de empilhamento na resist?ncia ? tra??o de laminados quase-isotr?picos. Placas de comp?sitos foram fabricadas com l?minas unidirecionais de ep?xi/carbono com configura??es [903/303/-303]S e [90/30/-30]3S. Corpos de prova foram submetidos a ensaios de tra??o e de open hole tension (OHT). De acordo com os resultados experimentais, os valores m?dios de resist?ncia para os laminados mais homogeneizados [90/30/-30]3S foram incrementados em 140% e 120% nos ensaios de resist?ncia ? tra??o e OHT, respectivamente, em rela??o aos laminados com configura??o [903/303/-303]S. O aumento de resist?ncia ? tra??o para laminados mais homogeneizados foi relacionado com o maior n?mero de interfaces interlaminares, que aumenta a quantidade de energia necess?ria para produzir delamina??o, e a maior dificuldade de propaga??o de trincas atrav?s de l?minas com orienta??es diferentes. A resist?ncia medida nos ensaios de OHT n?o foi afetada pela presen?a do furo devido ? predomin?ncia da influ?ncia da tens?o de cisalhamento interlaminar em rela??o ao efeito de concentra??o de tens?o provocado pelo furo

Orientador: Gabriela Rezende Fernandes / Resumo: Neste trabalho é apresentada uma formulação do MEC (Método dos Elementos de Contorno) considerando-se não-linearidade física para analisar microestruturas de materiais heterogêneos no contexto da análise em multi-escala. A microestrutura, também denominada como EVR (Elemento de Volume Representativo), é modelada como uma chapa em sub-regiões onde vazios ou inclusões podem ser considerados dentro da matriz, sendo diferentes propriedades elásticas e modelos constitutivos definidos para cada sub-região. A equação integral para o deslocamento é obtida a partir do Teorema de Betti, onde para considerar o fenômeno dissipativo, um campo de esforços iniciais é considerado. A equação algébrica da chapa é obtida após a discretização do contorno externo e interface em elementos e do domínio das subregiões em células. Na análise multi-escala cada ponto da estrutura (macrocontínuo) é representado por um EVR, onde o comportamento do material não é definido por um modelo constitutivo, mas através da solução do problema de equilíbrio do EVR quando sujeito à deformação referente ao ponto do macrocontínuo. O problema de equilíbrio do EVR é definido em termos da flutuação dos deslocamentos, sendo o mesmo satisfeito quando seu campo de forças se encontra em equilíbrio. Após a solução do EVR, os deslocamentos no contorno e as forças dissipativas são atualizados e as forças de superfície sobre o contorno recalculadas para se obter a tensão homogeneizada. O custo computacional obtido com a presente... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Mestre

Les études de faisabilité concernant le stockage géologique profond des déchets radioactifs ont conduit un intérêt accru concernant la modélisation géomécanique de la roche hte. En France, une roche hte potentielle est l'argilite du Callovo-Oxfordien du site de Meuse/Haute Marne. Etant donné que le principe de stockage géologique profond repose fortement sur la capacité de confinement de la formation hte, sa faible perméabilité est d'une importance clé. La perméabilité étant dépendante de la microstructure du matériau et de son évolution sous chargement, le comportement couplé hydro-mécanique de l'argilite est important. En effet, des modifications mécaniques sont induites par le creusement de la galerie d'entreposage, générant une zone endommagée (EDZ), pouvant conduire une modification de la perméabilité dans le voisinage de la galerie. Dans les matériaux microstructure complexe comme l'argilite du Callovo-Oxfordien, le comportement macroscopique trouve son origine dans l'interaction des constituants micro-mécaniques. En plus du couplage entre le comportement hydraulique et mécanique, un couplage entre les échelles micro et macro existe. Par le biais de l'élaboration d'un cadre d'homogénéisation du couplage hydro-mécanique, une approche de modélisation deuxéchelles est développée dans ce travail, dans laquelle la relation constitutive macroscopique découle directement du comportement à l'échelle microscopique. Un modèle existant du couplage hydro-mécanique, reposant sur l'identification de grains et d'espaces poreux intergranulaires à l'échelle micro est adopté comme point de départ. Ce modèle repose sur une homogénéisation numérique du comportement à la petite échelle afin d'obtenir à l'échelle macroscopique la réponse en contrainte et de transport du fluide interstitiel. Ce modèle est basé sur un VER périodique qui permet de déduire le comportement macroscopique local de l'argilite. En réponse, en un point d'intégration macro donné, à un incrément de la déformation et du gradient de pression, la réponse du VER permet d'exprimer l'incrément de contrainte et de flux associé, constituant de fait un équivalent numérique de la relation constitutive. Les problèmes aux conditions limites macro et micro sont traités simultanément par la méthode élément fini. Pour obtenir les opérateurs tangents consistants à l'échelle macro, la méthode d'homogénéisation par condensation statique des opérateurs tangeants micro est étendu au cas avec couplage hydro-mécanique. L'implémentation du modèle double échelle et la mise en uvre des développements théoriques d'homogénéisation ont été effectués dans le code élément fini Lagamine (Université de Liège). Pour la modélisation de la localisation de la déformation à l'échelle macro, qui, dans un formalisme de milieu continu classique, souffre de la dépendance au maillage, l'approche double-échelle a été utilisée dans un formalisme de milieu enrichi de type milieu de second gradient pour matériau poreux saturé. Les capacités du modèle homogénéisé numériquement, utilisé dans un cadre de milieu de second gradient, sont ensuite démontrées par des simulations d'essais dométriques et d'essais de compression biaxiaux. L'approche se confirme être un moyen puissant pour modéliser l'anisotropie initiale et induite du comportement mécanique et du comportement hydraulique. Pour la modélisation du comportement de l'argilite du Callovo-Oxfordien, des VER sont construits en tenant compte des travaux de caractérisation de la géométrie des inclusions microscopiques et des résultats expérimentaux d'essais macroscopiques.La loi de comportement homogénéisée numériquement ainsi calibrée est utilisée dans des simulations de creusement de galerie jusqu'à des niveaux d'endommagement générant une localisation de la déformation.Ces calculs montrent à la fois la pertinence et l'applicabilité du concept double échelle pour l'évaluation du comportement hydromécanique des EDZ dans un contexte du stockage des déchets radioactifs. / Feasibility studies for deep geological radioactive waste disposal facilities have led to an increased interest in the geomechanical modelling of its host rock. In France, a potential host rock is the Callovo-Oxfordian claystone. The low permeability of this material is of key importance, as the principal of deep geological disposal strongly relies on the sealing capacity of the host formation. The permeability being coupled to the mechanical material state, hydromechanical coupled behaviour of the claystone becomes important when mechanical alterations are induced by gallery excavation in the so-called excavation damaged zone (EDZ). In materials with microstructure such as the Callovo-Oxfordian claystone [Robinet et al., 2012], the macroscopic behaviour has its origin in the interaction of its mi- cromechanical constituents. In addition to the coupling between hydraulic and mech- anical behaviour, a coupling between the micro (material microstructure) and macro will be made. By means of the development of a framework of computational homo- genization for hydromechanical coupling, a doublescale modelling approach is formu- lated, for which the macroscale constitutive relations are derived from the microscale by homogenization. An existing model for the modelling of hydromechanical coupling based on the distinct definition of grains and intergranular pore space [Frey, 2010] is adopted and modified to enable the application of first order computational homogenization for obtaining macroscale stress and fluid transport responses. This model is used to constitute a periodic representative elementary volume (REV) that allows the rep- resentation of the local macroscopic behaviour of the claystone. As a response to deformation loading, the behaviour of the REV represents the numerical equivalent of a constitutive relation at the macroscale. For the required consistent tangent operators, the framework of computational homogenization by static condensation [Kouznetsova et al., 2001] is extended to hy- dromechanical coupling. The theoretical developments of this extension are imple- mented in the finite element code Lagamine (Li` ege) as an independent constitutive relation. For the modelling of localization of deformation, which in classical FE meth- ods suffers from the well-known mesh dependency, the doublescale approach of hy- dromechanical coupling is combined with a local second gradient model [Collin et al., 2006] to control the internal length scale of localized deformation. By accepting the periodic boundary conditions as a regularization of the microscale deformation, the use of the multiscale model in combination with the local second gradient model can be used for modelling localization phenomena in HM-coupled settings with material softening. The modelling capacities of the approach are demonstrated by means of simula- tions of oedometer tests and biaxial compression tests. The approach is demonstrated to be a powerful way to model anisotropy in the mechanical as well as the hydraulic behaviour of the material both in the initial material state and as an effect of hy- dromechanical alterations. For the application to the modelling of Callovo-Oxfordian claystone, microstructural REVs are calibrated to geometrical characteristics of the inclusion that form the microstructure under consideration and to macroscale ex- perimental results of the mechanical behaviour. The calibrated constitutive relation is used in the simulation of gallery excavation processes. These computations give a proof of concept of the doublescale assessment of the hydromechanical behaviour of the excavation damaged zones around galleries in the context of nuclear waste disposal.

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