As propriedades da turbulência induzida em um fluido viscoso através da oscilação de uma grade foram investigadas experimentalmente utilizando a técnica DPIV (Digital Particle Image Velocimetry). Perfis verticais da energia cinética turbulenta, taxa de dissipação de energia, viscosidade turbulenta e escala de comprimento foram obtidos e comparados com soluções analíticas existentes. Os dados experimentais mostram uma boa concordância com as predições teóricas. Adicionalmente, foi observado que há uma variação significativa da intensidade turbulenta para distâncias próximas da grade. Com o aumento da distância, a turbulência se torna mais homogênea no plano horizontal, e estas variações tendem a desaparecer. Os resultados mostram também que o escoamento somente pode ser considerado livre de cisalhamento para grandes distâncias da grade, onde as tensões de Reynolds se aproximam de zero. Além disso, descobriu-se que são necessários no mínimo 450 campos de vetores para assegurar a precisão das medidas. Também foram realizadas medidas de turbulência em uma configuração de duas grades. Os resultados mostram que a região central entre as duas grades possui certas propriedades similares à turbulência isotrópica. Adicionalmente, foram realizadas comparações com o modelo k-&#949, mostrando que o mesmo pode ser aplicado a uma configuração de duas grades. / The properties of turbulence induced in a viscous fluid by oscillating a grid were investigated experimentally using the digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV). Vertical profiles of the turbulent energy, the dissipation rate, the eddy viscosity and a lengthscale have been obtained and compared with available analytical solutions. The experimental data agree well with the theoretical predictions. In addition, it could be observed that there are significant variations of the turbulent intensities at a small distance from the grid. With increasing distance from the grid, the turbulence becomes more homogeneous in the horizontal plane, and the variations in the turbulent intensities are reduced. The results also show that the turbulence can be considered to be shear-free only at a distance sufficiently far away from the grid, where the Reynolds shear stress aproaches zero. It became evident, furthermore, that at least 450 vector maps should be taken to ensure the accuracy of the measured velocity fluctuations. Turbulence was also measured for a two-grid configuration. It was found that the central region between the grids has certain properties similar to that of isotropic turbulence. The results show good agreement with the k-&#949 model, validating the application of the k-&#949 model to a pair of oscillating-grids.

As propriedades da turbulência induzida em um fluido viscoso através da oscilação de uma grade foram investigadas experimentalmente utilizando a técnica DPIV (Digital Particle Image Velocimetry). Perfis verticais da energia cinética turbulenta, taxa de dissipação de energia, viscosidade turbulenta e escala de comprimento foram obtidos e comparados com soluções analíticas existentes. Os dados experimentais mostram uma boa concordância com as predições teóricas. Adicionalmente, foi observado que há uma variação significativa da intensidade turbulenta para distâncias próximas da grade. Com o aumento da distância, a turbulência se torna mais homogênea no plano horizontal, e estas variações tendem a desaparecer. Os resultados mostram também que o escoamento somente pode ser considerado livre de cisalhamento para grandes distâncias da grade, onde as tensões de Reynolds se aproximam de zero. Além disso, descobriu-se que são necessários no mínimo 450 campos de vetores para assegurar a precisão das medidas. Também foram realizadas medidas de turbulência em uma configuração de duas grades. Os resultados mostram que a região central entre as duas grades possui certas propriedades similares à turbulência isotrópica. Adicionalmente, foram realizadas comparações com o modelo k-&#949, mostrando que o mesmo pode ser aplicado a uma configuração de duas grades. / The properties of turbulence induced in a viscous fluid by oscillating a grid were investigated experimentally using the digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV). Vertical profiles of the turbulent energy, the dissipation rate, the eddy viscosity and a lengthscale have been obtained and compared with available analytical solutions. The experimental data agree well with the theoretical predictions. In addition, it could be observed that there are significant variations of the turbulent intensities at a small distance from the grid. With increasing distance from the grid, the turbulence becomes more homogeneous in the horizontal plane, and the variations in the turbulent intensities are reduced. The results also show that the turbulence can be considered to be shear-free only at a distance sufficiently far away from the grid, where the Reynolds shear stress aproaches zero. It became evident, furthermore, that at least 450 vector maps should be taken to ensure the accuracy of the measured velocity fluctuations. Turbulence was also measured for a two-grid configuration. It was found that the central region between the grids has certain properties similar to that of isotropic turbulence. The results show good agreement with the k-&#949 model, validating the application of the k-&#949 model to a pair of oscillating-grids.

Creating mixing at low Reynolds numbers is a non-trivial challenge that has been approached from many different perspectives, using passive or active methods. This challenge been further highlighted with the rise of microfluidics. Based on the diminutive size of these devices, the Reynolds numbers are often less than 10, but have high Peclet numbers. Therefore, creating effective mixing is non-trivial and is a topic of active research, and is of paramount importance in order to improve performance of microfluidic devices in a wide range of applications. The objective of this research was to develop a novel active device for laminar mixing. The mixing device developed herein capitalized on Nafion ionic polymers, which are a class of active materials that are thin, flexible, inexpensive, and readily deployable in an aqueous medium and offer strains up to 5% under a small (<2V) applied voltage. The effect of these deflections on an incident flow is the mixing mechanism in a laminar channel flow explored in this effort. To the author's knowledge, the high-risk effort presented herein is the first attempt to exploit ionic polymers as an active mixing device. Several different configurations of ionic polymers were tested and Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) measurements were obtained. Resulting analysis using a quantitative mixing metric shows that using cantilevered polymers create increases mixing potential in the flow for some actuation cases. Although these differences are present, they do not appear consistently in the results. However, only a partial set of flow information was obtained from DPIV, and an improved understanding of the effect of these polymers could be developed from additional experiments. Using cantilevered ionic polymers for laminar mixing could foster the development of a new generation of efficient micromixing devices, which will improve the capabilities and effectiveness of numerous microfluidic technologies that range across biomedical, lab-on-a-chip, separation and sorting technologies and many more. / Master of Science

From clinical studies it is well known that atherosclerosis has preferred locations in the vascular system, primarily sited in the carotid arteries, coronary arteries, and in vessels supplying the lower extremities in the arterial system. In the vicinity of bifurcations flow tends to separate forming re-circulation regions. In addition, due to the pulsatile character of blood flow during the deceleration part of the cycle, the flow becomes unstable and transition to turbulence may occur. Vascular stents provide a novel method in treatment of atherosclerotic vessels. Although stents have dramatically decreased the re-stenosis rate of vessels compared to balloon-angioplasty, restenosis still occurs in 25-30% of coronary implanted stents. Understanding how stents influence flow patterns may lead to more hemodynamically compatible stent designs that alleviate thrombus formation and promote endothelialization. The first study employed time-resolved Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) to compare the hemodynamic performance of two stents in a compliant vessel. The first stent was a rigid insert, representing an extreme compliance mismatch. The second stent was a commercially available nitinol stent with some flexural characteristics. DPIV showed that compliance mismatch promotes the formation of a ring vortex in the vicinity of the stent. Larger compliance mismatch increased both the size and residence time of the ring vortex, and introduced in-flow stagnation points. These results provide detailed quantitative evidence of the hemodynamic effect of stent mechanical properties. Better understanding of these characteristics will provide valuable information for modifying stent design in order to promote long-term In the second study, DPIV was utilized to explore the fluid dynamics phenomena in a symmetric compliant bifurcation. We studied the effects of the Womersley and the Reynolds numbers under pulsatile flow conditions. New insight of the fluid mechanics is revealed. The flow topology results indicate that the formation of coherent vortices in the vicinity of the bifurcation apex is governed by physical process that dictates the energy and strength of the formed vortices. This is manifested by the identification of a characteristic dimensionless time-scale that combines the impulsive vortex formation with the inertia of the unsteady flow. / Master of Science

Left ventricular flows in the human heart are very complex and in the presence of a diseased condition, such as unhealthy or prosthetic heart valves, the complexity of the flow is further increased. The intricacy of the heart geometry combined with the pulsatile character of the flow, the interaction of high-speed jets with the flexible walls, and the unsteady motion of the heart valve leaflets generate inherently complicated flow fields. It is therefore essential that we study and understand the complex cardiac energetics and physics of blood flow in both healthy and diseased hearts. Although artificial heart valves, mechanical and biological, have evolved to a level of universal acceptance, they have never reached a level of performance comparable to that of the natural valves of the heart. Many of the problems are directly related to the fluid mechanics. Considering that mechanical heart valves (MHV) are more commonly implanted because of their durability, it is imperative to better understand their hemodynamic behavior. Yet to date, no study has documented in depth the complex hemodynamic characteristics of left ventricular flows and assessed the intricate structures that are generated in the left ventricle (LV) due to vortex formation (roll-up of shear layers shed past the valve leaflets), turbulence characteristics, and energetics. The flow through pivoted leaflets of MHVs induces a combination of flow characteristics that are dependent on the specific valve design and orientation. The aim of the present study is to provide new insight into the spatio-temporal dynamics of the flow distal to a mitral MHV by employing a state-of-the-art, high resolution, flow diagnostic method, Time Resolved Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (TRDPIV) in a flexible, transparent LV documenting the evolution of eddies and turbulence during a complete period of the heart cycle. The broad impact of the proposed research extends beyond the hemodynamics of heart valve prosthesis. The research herein will enable the development of a tool for application in all cardiac energetic studies (unhealthy valves, tissue engineered valves, cardiac remodeling stages, and even congestive heart failure) and aid in better diagnosis of the efficiency and performance of the heart. The last component of the dissertation involved the translation of my dissertation research into an engineering educational tool for undergraduate engineering students. / Ph. D.

Cardiovascular disease is responsible for the majority of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Physiologically healthy flow rarely displays turbulent behavior, thereby maintaining normal shear levels. The presence of vortical flow structures, however, alters the hemodynamical characteristics within the system, which has significant effect upon shear stress (SS) and wall shear stress (WSS) levels, as well as particle residence times. The relationship between these hemodynamic parameters and vascular injury response is of great relevance to understanding the cardiovascular disease process. In this work, new methods and algorithms are developed and presented for resolving, both globally and locally, the spatial and temporal variations of shear stress (SS) and WSS for in vitro models of the human cardiovascular system. Advancements in global measurements are based on improving the accuracy of SS and WSS estimation from time-resolved Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) velocity measurements. A new velocity derivative method, the fourth-order noise-optimized compact-Richardson implicit scheme, has been developed, overcoming the obstacle of minimizing both the bias and random error in temporal/spatial derivative estimations. The resulting error is on the same order as the velocity measurement error for global measurements which results in an order of magnitude accuracy improvement. The method has been extended to WSS measurements, and combined with a new method of mirroring/reflecting a flow field over its boundary in order to achieve higher-order estimation. For moving boundaries an edge detection cross-correlation algorithm has been developed and characterized, yielding sub-pixel accuracy in measuring dynamic wall position prior to estimating WSS. An original microelectromechanical system (MEMS) WSS sensor capable of delivering high sensitivity, frequency response and accurate WSS measurements has been developed and characterized in this work. / Ph. D.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the number one causes of death in the world. According to the world Health Organization (WHO) 17.5 million people died from cardiovascular disease in 2005, representing 30 % of all global deaths . Of these deaths, 7.6 million were due to heart attacks and 5.7 million due to stroke. If current trends are allowed to continue, by 2015 an estimated 20 million people will die annually from cardiovascular disease. The trends are similar in the United States where on an average 1 person dies every 37 seconds due to CVD. In 2008 an estimated 770,000 Americans will experience a new heart attack (coronary stenosis) and 600,000 will experience a first stroke. Although the exact causes of cardiovascular disease are not well understood, hemodynamics has been long thought to play a primary role in the progression of cardiovascular disease and stroke. There is strong evidence linking the fluid mechanical forces to the transduction mechanisms that trigger biochemical response leading to atherosclerosis or plaque formation. It is hypothesized that the emergence of abnormal fluid mechanical stresses which dictate the cell mechanotransduction mechanisms and lead to disease progression is dependent on the geometry and compliance of arteries, and pulsatility of blood flow. Understanding of such hemodynamic regulation in relation to atherosclerosis is of significant clinical importance in the prediction and progression of heart disease as well as design of prosthetic devices such as stents. The current work will systematically study the effects of compliance and complex geometry and the resulting fluid mechanical forces. The objective of this work is to understand the relationship of fluid mechanics and disease conditions using both experimental and computational methods where (a) Compliance effects are studied in idealized stenosed coronary and peripheral arteries using Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV), (b) Complex geometric effects of stented arteries with emphasis on its design parameters is investigated using CFD, Also (c) a novel method to improve the accuracy of velocity gradient estimation in the presence of noisy flow fields such as in DPIV where noise is inherently present is introduced with the objective to improve accuracy in the estimation of WSS, which are of paramount hemodynamic importance. The broad impact of the current work extends to the understanding of fundamental physics associated with arterial disease progression which can lead to better design of prosthetic devices, and also to better disease diagnostics. / Ph. D.

The performance of the heart after a valve replacement operation will greatly depend on the flow character downstream the mitral valve thus a better understanding of the flow character is essential. Most in vitro studies of the flow downstream of a MHV have been conducted with the valve in the aortic position. Researchers reported detailed measurements most of which were obtained by Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) in rigid models of the aorta. Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) has also been utilized to reveal intricate patterns of interacting shed vortices downstream of the aortic valve. The orientation of the valves may considerably affect the flow development and slight difference may produce significant differences in the ventricular flow fields. Two orientations, respectively anatomical and anti-anatomical, of the St. Jude Medical (SJM) bileaflet valve are presented and compared with the SJM Biocor porcine valve, which served to more closely represent the natural valve. In this effort, we employ a powerful tool to monitor the velocity field in a flexible, transparent LV and study the evolution of large eddies and turbulence through a complete cardiovascular cycle. Both time average and instantaneous results of velocity, vorticity, and turbulent kinetic energy distributions are presented. The presence and location of vortical structures were deduced as well as the level of coherence of these structures. The presence of three distinct flow patterns were identified, by the location of vortical structures and level of coherence, for the three configurations corresponding to significant differences in the turbulence level distribution inside the LV. / Master of Science

Ferrofluids are comprised of subdomain particles of magnetite or iron oxide material that can become magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field. These unique liquids are being incorporated into many new applications due to the ability to control them at a distance using magnetic fields. However, although our understanding of the dynamics of ferrofluids has evolved, many aspects of ferrohydrodynamics remain largely unexplored, especially experimentally. This study is the first to characterize the stability and internal dynamics of accumulating or dispersing ferrofluid aggregates spanning the stable, low Reynolds number behavior to unstable, higher Reynolds numbers. The dynamics of ferrofluid aggregates are governed by the interaction between the bulk flow shear stresses acting to wash away the aggregate and magnetic body forces acting to retain them at the magnet location. This interaction results in different aggregate dynamics, including the stretching and coagulation of the aggregate to Kelvin-Helmholtz shedding from the aggregate interface as identified by focused shadowgraphs. Using TRDPIV, the first time-resolved flow field measurements conducted in ferrofluids reveal the presence of a three-stage process by which the ferrofluid interacts with a pulsatile bulk flow. An expanded parametric study of the effect of Reynolds number, magnetic field strength, and flow unsteadiness reveals that the increased field results can result in the lifting and wash away of the aggregate by means of vortex strengthening. In pulsatile flow, different forms of the three-stage interaction occur based on magnetic field, flow rate, and Reynolds number. / Ph. D.

The first aim of this work was to integrate, validate, and document, a digital particle image quantification (Flow-IQ) software package developed in conjunction with and supported by Aeroprobe Corporation. The system is tailored towards experimental fluid mechanics applications. The second aim of this work was to test the performance of DPIV algorithms in wall shear flows, and to test the performance of several particle sizing algorithms for use in spray sizing and average diameter calculation. Several particle sizing algorithms which assume a circular particle profile were tested with DPIV data on spray atomization, including three point Guassian, four point Gaussian, and least squares algorithms. A novel elliptical diameter estimation scheme was developed which does not limit the measurement to circular patterns. The elliptic estimator developed in this work is able to estimate the diameter of a particle with an elliptic shape, and assumes that the particle is axisymmetric about the x or y axis. Two elliptical schemes, the true and averaged elliptical estimators, were developed and compared to the traditional three point Gaussian diameter estimator using theoretical models. If elliptical particles are theoretically used, the elliptical sizing schemes perform drastically better than the traditional scheme, which is limited to diameter measurements in the x-direction. The error of the traditional method in determining the volume of an elliptical particle increases dramatically with the eccentricity. Monte Carlo Simulations were also used to characterize the error associated with wall shear measurements using DPIV. Couette flow artificial images were generated with various shear rates at the wall. DPIV analysis was performed on these images using PIV algorithms developed by other researchers, including the traditional multigrid method, a dynamically-adaptive DPIV scheme, and a control set with no discrete window offset. The error at the wall was calculated for each data set. The dynamically adaptive scheme was found to estimate the velocity near the wall with less error than the no discrete window offset and traditional multigrid algorithms. The shear rate was found to be the main factor in the error in the velocity measurement. In wall shear velocity measurement, the mean (bias) error was an order of magnitude greater than the RMS (random) error. A least squares scheme was used to correct for this bias error with favorable results. The major contribution of this effort stems from providing a novel elliptical particle sizing scheme for use in DPIV, and quantifies the error associated with wall shear measurements using several DPIV algorithms. A test bed and comprehensive user's manual for Flow-IQ v2.2 was also developed in this work. / Master of Science