Soft particle glasses like microgels and compressed emulsions are densely packed, disordered suspensions of deformable particles. Quantitative relationships among the constituent properties and the macroscopic properties of the suspension are determined for their customized design as rheological additives. The microscopic origin of their macroscopic properties is also determined. Advanced characterization techniques like Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear (LAOS) and microrheology are studied to use them efficiently to characterize these materials. Their microstructure and rheology are investigated through theory, simulations and experiments. Soft particle glasses are used as rheological additives in many applications including coatings, solid inks and textured food and cosmetic products but their formulation is largely empirical. A quantitative connection between their formulation and rheology is critical to enable their rational design. Their microstructure will lead to the microscopic origin of some unique properties in common with other soft crowded materials like intracellular cytoplasm and clays. These are complex fluids and require novel techniques to characterize them. A study of these techniques is essential to efficiently interpret the observations in terms of their macroscopic properties and the microscopic dynamics involved. Particle scale simulations of steady and oscillatory shear flow are developed to predict the nonlinear rheology and microstructure of these glasses. The origin of yielding is determined as escape of particles from their cages giving rise to a shear induced diffusion. Microrheology is studied by developing simulations of a probe particle being pulled at a constant force and the rheological information from microrheology is quantitatively connected to that from bulk rheological measurements. Soft particle glasses develop internal stresses when quenched to a solid state by flow cessation during processing. Experiments are performed to characterize and a priori predict these stresses. Simulations are used to determine the particle scale mechanisms involved in the stress relaxation on flow cessation and the microstructural origin of internal stresses. A pairwise interaction theory is developed for quiescent glasses to quantitatively predict their microstructure and elastic properties. The theory is then extended to sheared glasses to quantitatively predict their nonlinear rheology. The implementation of the pairwise theories is computationally much faster than the full three-dimensional simulations. / text

Not available / text

Fibrin is a biopolymer that assembles into a network during blood coagulation to become the structural scaffold of a blood clot. The precise mechanics of this network are crucial for a blood clot to properly stem the flow of blood at the site of vascular injury while still remaining pliable enough to avoid dislocation. A hallmark of fibrin's mechanical response is strain-stiffening: at small strains, its response is low and linear; while at high strains, its stiffness increases non-linearly with increasing strain. The physical origins of strain-stiffening have been studied for other biopolymer systems but have remained elusive for biopolymer networks composed of stiff filaments, such as fibrin. To understand the origins of this intriguing behavior, we directly observe and quantify the motion of all of the fibers in the fibrin networks as they undergo shear in 3D using confocal microscopy. We show that the strain-stiffening response of a clot is a result of the full network deformation rather than an intrinsic strain-stiffening response of the individual fibers. We observe a distinct transition from a linear, low-strain regime, where all fibers avoid any internal stretching, to a non-linear, high-strain regime, where an increasing number of fibers become stretched. This transition is characterized by a high degree of non-affine motion. Moreover, we are able to precisely calculate the non-linear stress-strain response of the network by using the strains on each fiber measured directly with confocal microscopy and by assuming the fibers behave like linearly elastic beams. This result confirms that it is the network deformation that causes the strain-stiffening behavior of fibrin clots. These data are consistent with predictions for low-connectivity networks with soft, bending, or floppy modes. Moreover, we show that the addition of small contractile cells, platelets, increases the low-strain stiffness of the network while the high-strain stiffness is independent of the presence of the platelets; this is also consistent with expectations for small contractile elements in a network with low connectivity. Our results elucidate the origins of strain-stiffening in fibrin networks as well as the mechanism underlying platelet-induced clot stiffening. / Physics

This thesis reports the rheological properties of algae slurries as a function of cell concentration for three microalgae species: Nannochloris sp.,Chlorella vulgaris, and Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Rheological properties ofalgae slurries have a direct impact on the agitation and pumping power requirements as well as process design for producing algal biofuels. This study measures the rheological properties of eight diff erent concentrations of each species ranging from 0.5 to 80 kg dry biomass/m³. Strain-controlled steady rate sweep tests were performed for each sample with an ARES-TA rheometer using a double wall couette cup and bob attachment. Shear rates ranged from 5 - 270 s⁻¹, corresponding to typical expected conditions. The results showed that Nannochloris sp. slurry behaved as a Newtonian fluid for concentrations up to 20 kg/m³. Samples with concentrations above 40 kg/m³ behaved as a shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid. The effective viscosity increased with increased biomass concentration for a maximum value of 3.3x10⁻³ Pa-s. Similarly, C. vulgaris slurry behaved as a Newtonian fluid with concentrations of up to 40 kg/m³, above which it displayed a shear thinning non-Newtonianf behavior and a maximum eff ective viscosity of 3.5x10⁻² Pa-s. On the other hand, P. tricornutum slurry demonstrated solely Newtonian fluid behavior, with the dynamic viscosity increasing with increasing biomass concentration for a maximum value of 3.2x10⁻³ Pa-s. The maximum observed e ffective viscosity occurred at a concentration of 80 kg/m³ for all three species. Moreover, an energy analysis was performed where a non-dimensional bioenergy transport e ffectiveness was de termined as the ratio of the energy content of the transported algae biomass to the sum of the required pumping power and the harvesting power. The results show that the increase in major losses due to increase in viscosity was overcompensated by the increase in the transported biomass energy. Also, cultivating a more concentrated slurry requires less dewatering power and is the preferred option. The largest bioenergy transport eff ectiveness was observed for the slurries with the largest initial dry biomass concentrations. Finally, the relative viscosity of algae slurries was modeled using a Kelvin-Voit based model for dilute and concentrated viscoelastic par- ticle suspensions. The model, which depends primarily on the packing factor of the algae species, agrees with the measured viscosity with an average error of 18%, while the concentrated particle suspension model was slightly more accurate than the dilute suspension model. / text

We study the flow of a dilute polymer solution in a wavy channel under steady-state flow conditions by employing the non-equilibrium thermodynamics two-fluid model (Mavrantzas-Beris, 1992), allowing for the coupling between polymer concentration and polymer stresses. The resulting highly complex system of partial differential equations describing inhomogeneous transport phenomena in the fluid are solved with an efficient implementation of the mixed finite-element method. We present numerical results for polymer concentration, stress, velocity and fluxes of polymer as a function of the non-dimensional parameters of the problem (the Deborah number , the Peclet number , the Reynolds number , the ratio of the solvent viscosity to the total fluid viscosity , and the constriction ratio of the channel width ). We find that the constricted part of the wall is depleted of polymer, when the polymer diffusion length-scale, expressed by the ratio of / , increases. The migration is more pronounced for macromolecules characterized by longer relaxation times, and takes place towards the expanding part of the channel or towards the centerplane. Migration is also enhanced by the width variability of the channel: the more corrugated the channel, the stronger the transfer of polymer to the centerplane. This increases the spatial extent of polymer depletion near the wall or induces a zone of sharp variation in polymer stress and concentration, which moves away from the channel wall, especially in lower polymer concentration. The development of a polymer-depleted layer smooths out the boundary layer which is known to arise with Boger fluids at the walls of such corrugated channels or tubes and gives rise to an “apparent” slip in the constricted section of the wall and to a very low value of the drag force on the wall. When and where boundary layers arise, they scale as (1/De) for the stresses and as (De⁄Pe)^(1⁄3) for the concentration. / --

The spinning process of hollow fiber membranes was investigated with regards to two fundamental phenomena: flow (shear and elongation) and phase separation. Quantitative analysis of phase separation kinetics of binary (polymer/solvent) and ternary (polymer/solvent/volatile co-solvent) polymer solution was carried out with a newly developed microfluidic device. The device enables visualization of in situ phase separation and structure formation in controlled vapor and liquid environments. Results from these studies indicated that there was a weak correlation between phase separation kinetics and macroscopic defect (macrovoid) formation. In addition, the effect of shear and elongation on membrane morphology was tested by performing fiber extrusion through microfluidic channels. It was found that the membrane morphology is dominated by different factors depending on the rate of deformation. At high shear rates typical of spinning processes, shear was found to induce macrovoid formation through normal stresses, while elongation suppressed macroscopic defect formation. Furthermore, draw resonance, one of the key instabilities that can occur during fiber spinning, was investigated. It was found that draw resonance occurs at aggressive elongation condition, and could be suppressed by enhanced phase separation kinetics. These results can be used as guidelines for predicting hollow fiber membrane spinnability.

Structure function changes of casein micelles were studied as a function of concentration using a non invasive concentration method, osmotic stressing. A combination of serum analysis, light scattering and rheological measurements were used to characterize the physico-chemical properties of casein micelles. In heated and unheated milk, rheological studies indicated that casein micelles behave as hard spheres of similar volume fractions, if the viscosity changes in the serum phase and the particle particle interactions are taken into account. The differences in the distribution of the heat induced complexes between colloidal and soluble phase affected the colloidal properties of casein micelles. Above 70 g L-1 protein, the protein particles were no longer free diffusing. Re-dilution of the suspensions showed no irreversible aggregation. The data suggested that in the range of concentration studied casein micelles behave as hard spheres. Age gelation was also investigated on heated and unheated concentrated milk. In unheated concentrated milk proteolysis played an important role in imparting an increase in viscosity by causing aggregation of the casein micelles. On the other hand, in heated milk, there was a significant effect of the whey protein aggregates, which increased their interaction with the casein micelles over time. This effect, together with proteolysis caused age gelation in heated concentrated milk. The method of concentration used in this research, osmotic stressing, was then compared to ultrafiltration. It was demostrated that these two methods are not equivalent, as shear and mixing during ultrafiltration cause rearrangements to the casein micells. The differences were clearly demonstrated by adding soluble caseins to the milk before or after concentration. This project brings a better understanding on the effects of concentration on the structure-function of casein micelles and the interactions occurring in milk proteins during concentration.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.