The theory of laser-induced liquid-liquid interface deformation has been presented and used to derive a differential equation describing the shape of the deformation. The differential equation has been investigated and solved numerically, and the results have been compared to the experimental results of the Bordeaux group. A model describing the maximum depth of the deformation based on the theory of a sphere in an electric field has also been investigated.The deformations from the numerical solutions of the differential equation are too wide compared to the experimental results. The shoulder-shape that has been observed in the experiments is not present in the numerical solutions. There is reason to believe that the differential equation may be too simple in order to describe the liquid-liquid interface deformation for nonlinear cases. There may be thermal effects that changes the liquid properties due to local temperature variations induced by the laser, causing the liquid parameters to change along the deformation.The model used to estimate the deformation depth does not give reasonable results, as it leads to a deformation that is more than 100 times larger than what is observed in the corresponding experiments. The assumptions made for this model may not be valid, and a discussion on what should be done in order to improve the model is included in this text.

This report is a study of how polarized light can improve our understandings of physical phenomena, such as local organization of anisometric nanoparticles dispersed in a liquid.The first part of the thesis considers the theoretical aspects of polarized light. The Maxwell's equations are considered together with the Stokes formalism and the Mueller matrix. The Mueller matrix is analyzed in depth by looking at different ways it can be decomposed into several matrices, each clearly representing the physical phenomena of depolarization, diattenuation and retardance. The physics behind the phenomena will then be shortly addressed.The second part of the thesis describes the Mueller Matrix Imaging (MMI) ellipsometer, developed in the Applied Optics Group at NTNU. The results of Mueller imaging of air will be presented and discussed in order to get more understanding of the ellipsometer.The third and main part of the thesis, focuses on applying the MMI ellipsometer in order to study complex phenomena in clay dispersion. By looking at the development of samples of aqueous clay dispersions, the creation of different phases will be recorded. Some of those phases have crystalline properties and a Mueller matrix imaging can reveal much about its structure. A decomposition of the Mueller matrix can tell even more about the properties of the phases.

We have constructed four different types of designs for computer experiments. Thedesign types are based on latin hypercube sampling (LHS), orthogonal arrays (OA), ran-dom sampling and the recently proposed multi-level binary replacement (MBR) design.For each type of design we have attempted to find the best possible design out of acertain number of constructed designs using three different optimizing criteria: the alias sum of square criterion (ASSC), the L-criterion and a modified A-criterion. The chosen design has then been tested by fitting an approximate model and calculating maximum error (MAX) and root mean squared error (RMSE) values. We observed that out of the three criteria applied the ASSC performed the best.In addition to comparing criteria for optimizing the design choice, we have alsoconstructed non-optimized designs for comparing the different design types and thedifferent ways of constructing MBR designs. In this setting we observed that OA designsperformed well in general, whereas the MBR designs performed well when restricted toa small number of factors.

Hyperbolic relaxation systems is an active field of research, with a largenumber of applications in physical modeling. Examples include modelsfor traffic flow, kinetic theory and fluid mechanics. This master’s thesis is a numerical and theoretical analysis of such systems, and consists of two main parts: The first is a new scheme for the stable numerical solution of hyperbolic relaxation systems using exponential integrators. First and second-order schemes of this type are derived and some desirable stability and accuracy properties are shown. The scheme is also used to solve a granular-gas model in order to demonstratethe practical use of the method. The second and largest part of this thesis is the analysis of the solutionsto 2 × 2 relaxation systems. In this work, the link between the the sub-characteristic condition and the stability of the solution of the relaxationsystem is discussed. In this context, the sub-characteristic condition andthe dissipativity of the Chapman–Enskog approximation are shown to beequivalent in both 1-D and 2-D. Also, the dispersive wave dynamics of hyperbolic relaxation systems isanalyzed in detail. For 2 × 2 systems, the wave-speeds of the individualFourier-components of the solution are shown to fulfill a transitional sub-characteristic condition. Moreover, the transition is monotonic in thevariable ξ = kε, where ε is the relaxation time of the system and k is thewave-number. A basic 2 × 2 model is used both as an example-model in the analyticaldiscussions, and as a model for numerical tests in order to demonstratethe implications of the analytical results.

Silicone oil droplets containing synthetic smectite clay submerged in another immiscible organic oil have been studied by observing clay particle movement, oil circulation and drop deformation when an electric field is applied. Results show how electric field strength, electrohydrodynamics, dielectric and conductive properties determines the fluid flow, clay particle formation and drop deformation.

Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2 and one of the most easily absorbed nutrients,can be found in many different organisms. The most abundant source of riboflavin ismilk and dairy products; however it is also present in meat, fish and certain types ofvegetables and fruit. Riboflavin is an important part of a healthy diet in order to keep skin, eyes and nervous systems healthy. Some studies indicate that riboflavin plays an important role in cancer and cardiovascular diseases.As known, milk is extremely sensitive to light. Riboflavin is one of the factorsresponsible for the light-induced degradation of milk. In combination with light andoxygen riboflavin may act as a photosensitizer. When vitamin B2 absorbs blue-greenlight, an excited triplet state of riboflavin is generated through a process called intersystem crossing. Reactive oxygen species, such as singlet oxygen, is then formed by reaction of excited riboflavin triplet with dissolved oxygen present in milk. Light exposure of milk can lead to off-flavor and damage of vitamins by reaction of singlet oxygen with amino acids and lipids in milk. Unfortunately, most of the packaging materials today do not protect milk from light completely. The formation of singlet oxygen can also be prevented by adding quenchers that are able to deactivate riboflavin triplets.Certain amino acids and carotenoids are well known flavin quenchers.The purpose of this study was to investigate how well riboflavin triplets can bequenched by amino acids cysteine, histidine, methionine, tyrosine and tryptophan. Thequenching properties of hydrophilic carotenoid crocin were studied as well. Crocinhas been under investigation of researches at the Departement of Physics at NTNU.Lumiflavin, which is one of the riboflavin’s photodegradation products, was used instead of riboflavin. The former is more stable and has similar photochemical characteristics as the latter.The quenching of lumiflavin triplets was studied by using laser flash photolysis. Itconsists of irradiating the sample under investigation with a short-lived laser flash. The method was used to measure the kinetic decay rate of lumiflavin in aqueous buffer with and without different concentrations of a quencher. The data were fitted to two different decay models. From pseudo-first-order rate constants the quenching rate constants were determined for each amino acid and crocin. All amino acids and crocin used in this study showed a quenching effect on the lumiflavin triplets. Further, it was determined whether the fitting models are suitable for these kind of measurements by simulating the decay of lumiflavin with and without any quencher. More studies on the fitting models have to be done to be able to get reliable results.

In this thesis we theoretically examine spin-polarized non-local transport in two junctions built up by materials with superconducting and magnetic properties. The first consists of a Zeeman-split superconductor placed between two normal metals. We find that such systems can generate a spin-polarized non-local current even when the injected current is unpolarized. The effect is however mostly geometric and take place also when the superconductor is switched with a normal metal. The second system is built up by two ferromagnetic wires coupled by a superconductor via spin-active interfaces. We investigate the circumstances which allow for an inverse spin-valve effect. For certain parameter ranges we find that a crossover between positive and negative magnetoresistance is possible as a function of temperature.

Motivation: Cartilage is a robust but flexible connective tissue found in most joints of the body. The collagen fibres present in the extracellular matrix of cartilage contribute to its tensile strength and stiffness. The purpose of this study is to develop and implement methods to determine the orientation and anisotropy of collagen fibres in 3-D images gen- erated with multi-photon microscopy. The motivation behind developing these techniques is to improve the foundation for further studies on understanding the characteristics of the cartilage matrix. This in turn would give a better foundation for developing artificial matrices and mechanical models, as well as improve diagnostics.Material and methods: The two methods developed in this study are based on analysing the frequency domain. One is an expansion of a previous developed method by Chaudhuri et al. [1]. This method is based on evaluating the average intensity at different directions in the frequency domain. The direction with the least average intensity is equivalent to the direction of the fibres. The other method is based on thresholding the frequency domain according to intensity followed by fitting an ellipsoid to the remaining data set. The direction of the collagen fibres is equivalent to the direction of the shortest axis of the ellipsoid. These methods are called the sector and ellipsoid method, respectively. To determine how robust these methods are a series of tests were developed. The focus of these tests was to determine if the methods are rotational invariant and if the results are influences by different preprocessing techniques. These preprocessing techniques are: median filtering, deconvolution and skeletonization of the original image containing the collagen fibres. It is also important to determine the sensitivity of the ellipsoid method according to the chosen threshold value. In addition data generated fibres and frequency domains were made to determine the accuracy of the methods.Results and conclusion: The sector method was not very robust. For most cases there is not one specific direction that has the least average intensity in the frequency domain. Instead there is a quite large minimum area. The ellipsoid method shows promising results. It managed to find the correct direction both for the data generated data sets, but also for the real images. It seems like no preprocessing nor frequency filtering, except for thresholding, is needed to still find the correct direction and its anisotropy. The only remark is that the automatically chosen threshold value was to low for one of the samples. This can probably be improved by making a slight change in the process for choosing a threshold value.

In reservoir simulations, one of the biggest challenges is solving large modelswith complex geological properties. Because reservoirs can be several kilome-ters long, and still be geologically inhomogeneous over centimeters, the com-putational power required to solve a full set of mass balance equations can beimmense. Several methods for overcoming this challenge has been proposed,including various upscaling and multiscale methods.One of these approaches is the Multiscale Finite Volume (MsFV) method, whichaims to create a set of basis functions for the pressure which can be computedin parallel and reused for different boundary conditions. This thesis aims togive a thorough study of the MsFV-method itself, before extending it to threedimensional, unstructured grids. An implementation was done as a modulefor the MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox developed by SINTEF AppliedMathematics. A new variant of the method designed to overcome some of thecomputational challenges arising from an extension to 3D was also formulated.The implementation was then applied to both synthetic and realistic gridsand permeabilities, and compared against a full two point flux approximation(TPFA) solver.

The effect of thermophoresis on the particle deposition on a cooled cylinderin non-isothermal laminar gas ow has been studied using Direct NumericalSimulations (DNS). Simulations where thermophoresis have been taken intoaccount for different Stokes numbers and particle-to-gas thermal conductivityratios, Λ, have been performed at Reynolds number Re = 380. In additionreference cases, simulations where thermophoresis have not been taken intoaccount, have been performed both for isothermal and non-isothermal owfor Re = 20 and Re = 380.The ratio between the front side particle impaction efficiency in the non-isothermal reference case and the isothermal reference case for the smallestStokes numbers considered was expected to be proportional to the ratio ofthe free stream temperature and the cylinder temperature, according to an-analytical considerations. The simulations for Re = 20 was in good agreementwith this relation, but for Re = 380 the front side particle impaction efficiency for the smallest particles was lower in the non-isothermal referencecase compared to the isothermal reference case. This is believed to havebeen caused by inaccuracies in the numerical method for the non-isothermalsimulation at Re = 380.Thermophoresis was not found to affect the particle impaction for thelargest Stokes numbers. For intermediate and small Stokes numbers the effect of thermophoresis depended on Λ. The particle impaction efficiency wassignificantly higher, both for the front side and the back side, in the ther-mophoretic simulations compared to the non-isothermal reference case forparticles with Λ = 1 and Λ = 100. The particle impaction efficiency forparticles with Λ = 1000 was lower, both for the front side and the back side,in the thermophoretic case compared to the non-isothermal reference case.