This thesis concerns crack growth phenomena in rubber. It is widely known that a relationship exists between the magnitude of the stored energy release rate available to drive a crack, called the tearing energy (7'), and the resultant crack growth rate. For rubbers this basic relationship is said to be a characteristic of the material. The magnitude of T is related to both the visco-elastic losses and the crack tip diameter (d) However the actual size of d and its relationship with the viscoelastic losses is not clear. This thesis examines the crack growth behaviour in relation to d and the visco-elastic losses for a wide range of rubbers, whose visco-elastic properties are altered either by swelling in a liquid, altering the test temperature or the cross-link density and by the incorporation of fillers. Static, constant T, crack growth tests were carried out. These revealed that two different crack growth processes exist. For the fast crack growth process, T is determined by variations in the visco-elastic losses alone. For the slow crack growth process, T is determined by variations in both the visco-elastic losses and d. It is proposed here that the factors, which alter d, are associated with cavitation ahead of the crack tip for unfilled materials and with strength anisotropy for carbon black filled materials. In cyclic crack growth tests, the crack growth per cycle, dc/dn, can be considered to result from the sum of time and cyclic dependent crack growth components. For the first time, the detailed magnitudes of the contribution of each of these components to dc/dn have been determined, for a wide range of materials and mechanisms responsible for this behaviour are postulated. Also crack growth tests, both static and cyclic, were extended to very large extensions. Lastly this investigation revealed that the tensile strength for both ciystallising and noncrystallising rubber can be predicted using the tearing energy concept for a variety of loading regimes.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:35:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 01 - capa_abstract.pdf: 134195 bytes, checksum: 45ccca4315780ed037185fce918f9327 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-03-21 / Universidade Federal de Viçosa / Despite of the recent progress in cancer diagnosis and treatment, the survival rates of patients with tumors in unresectable locations, recurrent or metastatic tumors are still low. On the quest for alternative treatments, oncolytic virotherapy and encapsulation of chemotherapeutic drugs into nanoscale vehicles emerge as promissing strategies. However, several fundamental process and issues still must be understood in order to enhance the efficacy of these treatments. The nonlinearities and complexities inherent to tumor-oncolytic virus and tumor-drug interactions claim for a mathematical approach. Quantitative models allow to enlarge our understanding of the parameters influencing therapeutic outcomes, guide essays by indicating relevant physiological processes for further investigation, and prevent excessive experimentation. The multiescale models for virotherapy presented and discussed in this thesis suggest the appropriate traits an oncolytic virus must have and the less agressive ways to modulate the antiviral immune response in order to maximize the tumor erradication probability. Concerning the model for treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs encapsulated into nanoparticles, we focused on chimeric polymers attached with the doxorubicin drug, that recently are under active investigation. Using the same parameters that characterize these particles and the experimental protocols commonly used for their administration, our results indicate some of the basic features of these nanoparticles that should be developed in order to maximize the therapy's success. / A maior parte das terapias anti-câncer clinicamente usadas tem se desenvolvido empiricamente [1] mas a resposta do tumor e do organismo a essas terapias é não-linear. Portanto, modelos matemáticos podem ser ferramentas complementares (e talvez necessárias) para a compreensão da dinâmica da resposta à droga ou terapia no organismo. Nesta dissertação de mestrado alguns desses modelos são estudados. Em particular, propomos uma estratégia para crescer agregados isotrópicos do modelo de Eden na rede, um modelo estocástico básico para o crescimento de tumores avasculares, Os padrões gerados são caracterizados pela largura da interface, que é calculada considerando o centro da rede ou o centro de massa do agregado como referência, e pela diferença entre as probabilidades de crescimento axial e diagonal. Também foi estudado um modelo de multiescala para viroterapia em tumores avasculares em que as concentrações de nutrientes e vírus são descritas por equações de reação-difusão macroscópicas e as ações de células tumorais são governadas por regras estocásticas microscópicas. O objetivo central dessa parte do trabalho é a determinação do diagrama de estados no espaço de parâmetros. A faixa de parâmetros envolvidos foi estimada a partir de dados experimentais e a resposta das células tumorais à injeção viral apresenta quatro comportamentos diferentes, todos observados experimentalmente. Os valores dos parâmetros que geram predominantemente cada um desses comportamentos são determinados. / Não foi localizado o texto completo O texto publicado trata-se do resumo

In this thesis I investigate a number of problems in the nonlinear stability of density stratified plane Couette flow. I begin by describing the history of transient growth phenomena, and in particular the recent application of adjoint based optimisation to find nonlinear optimal perturbations and associated minimal seeds for turbulence, the smallest amplitude perturbations that are able to trigger transition to turbulence. I extend the work of Rabin et al. (2012) in unstratified plane Couette flow to find minimal seeds in both vertically and horizontally sheared stratified plane Couette flow. I find that the coherent states visited by such minimal seed trajectories are significantly altered by the stratification, and so proceed to investigate these states both with generalised Koopman mode analysis and by stratifying the self-sustaining process described by Waleffe (1997). I conclude with an introductory problem I considered that investigates the linear Taylor instability of layered stratified plane Couette flow, and show that the nonlinear evolution of the primary Taylor instability is not coupled to the form of the linearly unstable mode, in contrast to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, for example. I also include an appendix in which I describe joint work conducted with Professor Neil Balmforth of UBC during the 2015 WHOI Geophysical Fluid Dynamics summer programme, investigating stochastic homoclinic bifurcations.