Phospholipid coated, inert gas filled microbubbles (MBs) are currently in widespread use in medical applications for the enhancement of diagnostic ultrasound images, and they are promising candidates for use in the area of targeted drug/gene delivery and uptake. As phospholipid coated MBs were developed for use with diagnostic ultrasound, their behaviour under acoustic loading is well investigated, however much less is known about their response to direct mechanical loading, which will potentially prove important as the range of uses of MBs expands. This is particularly true of the existing commercially available MB products. In this thesis, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to investigate the mechanical behaviour of three types of commercially produced phospholipid coated MBs, Definity®, BR14 and Sonovue®, at small deformations. Force spectroscopy was used to produce force-deformation (F-Δ) curves showing how the MBs deform under mechanical loading. Definity® MBs were deformed with tipless cantilevers at high deformations (though still less than 30% of the initial height of the MB); BR14 and Sonovue® MBs were probed with both tipless and tipped cantilevers to investigate both whole-bubble deformation and also shell indentation. BR14 was limited to low deformations; Sonovue® included both low and high deformations. The F-Δ curves were used to evaluate MB stiffness and also in combination with up to four mechanical models to predict the Young’s modulus of the MBs. The suitability of Reissner, Hertz, Elastic Membrane and De Jong theories for the prediction of the Young’s modulus of the MBs was explored. In the case of Definity® MBs no correlation between MB size and stiffness was observed; however an unexpected size dependence was observed in the Young’s modulus values, possibly due to variations in the thickness of the phospholipid shell. The membrane stretching component of elastic membrane theory was found to be the most applicable model on these MBs in this higher deformation regime. However, in this regime, gas compressibility could play a role and this is not included in the model. We studied the mechanical properties of BR14 MBs at very low deformations using ‘soft’ cantilevers. In this regime, gas compressibility should play a minimal role and there are several mechanical models which may be used. These MBs demonstrated decreasing stiffness with increasing diameter, and little variation in Young’s modulus with diameter. Hertz and De Jong theories showed more realistic Young’s modulus values (compared to other models) with little observable trend. Sonovue® MBs were used for a more comprehensive study of the small and very small deformation regimes using ‘soft’, ‘hard’ and tipped cantilevers. They showed no definitive trend in MB stiffness with MB diameter. Hertz and De Jong theory were again found to be most suitable. Analysis of curves acquired with tipped cantilevers indicated that the stiffness of a localised area of the shell membrane is similar to the overall stiffness of the MB and that the apparent Young’s modulus of the membrane according to the Hertz theory is also similar to that of the MB as a whole. Generally, considering all systems, Reissner theory was found to produce large overestimates of Young’s modulus, exceeding expected values by several orders of magnitude. Hertz and De Jong theories produced underestimates, though by a much smaller margin. Elastic membrane theory worked well and produced realistic Young’s modulus values only at relatively high deformation (the stretching term) in spite of the fact that gas compressibility is not taken into account. The suitability of the models is therefore very dependent on the deformation regime of the experiment. It seems that there is scope for better models at low deformation taking into account the soft shell of the MB and possibly its specific structure. Precise structural information of the MB shells does not exist; it is not trivial to attain and should certainly be a topic of future work with additional instrumentation.

Tanks are storage vessels for liquids. They can have different appearances; some are short and wide, others are tall and slim, some are small, others are large. In this thesis a tank of 6 m in both diameter and height has been used to obtain numerical results of the stresses in the tank. Tanks are most often thin-walled with stepwise variable shell thickness with thicker wall sections at the bottom of the tank and thinner at the top. Since they are thin-walled they are susceptible to buckling and there are conditions the shell construction must meet. The conditions that has to be met are determined by the laws and regulations that govern tank design. The National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket) is the new Swedish authority for rules of tank design and the Eurocodes are the new family of standards that should be followed. Sweco Industry AB is the outsourcer of this thesis and wants to clarify what rules that apply now when the Eurocodes are to be followed. The thesis project has produced a calculation document in Mathcad for tank shell design according to the Eurocodes with stress calculations according to membrane theory and linear elastic shell analysis. This thesis has also produced a comparison of stresses calculated using membrane theory, linear elastic shell analysis and finite element method (FEM). The comparison has been made for numerical results given for an arbitrarily designed tank wall. The loads acting on the tank included in the description were self-weight, internal and hydrostatic pressure as well as wind and snow loads. The loads were described in accordance with the Eurocodes. Some assumptions had to be made where the standard was vague or deficient in order to make calculations by hand possible. For example, the wind load had to be described as an axisymmetrically distributed load rather than an angularly varying. The stresses in the tank wall were calculated through creating free-body diagrams and declaring equations for force and moment equilibrium. The loads and boundary conditions were set in a corresponding manner in the FEM software Ansys as in the calculation document in order to obtain comparable results. When compared, the stress results calculated with membrane theory and FEM were quite similar while the stresses calculated with linear analysis were a lot larger. The bending moments were assumed to be too large which make the results of the linear analysis dominated by the moments. The arbitrarily dimensions set for the tank did thus not fullfill the conditions when linear analysis was used but did so for membrane theory and FE-analysis. Since the results calculated with membrane theory were very close to FEM in most cases, even without expressions for local buckling, it was assumed to be an adequate method in this application. Expressions for local buckling are although needed for the meridional normal stress. The conclusions of the results obtained are that membrane theory is a simple and adequate method in most cases. Linear analysis thus becomes redundant since it is more complicated and more easily leads to faulty results. Furthermore it cannot be used for higher consequence classes than membrane theory. FEM, with a computer software such as Ansys, is although the most usable calculation method since it can conduct more complicated calculations and is allowed to be used for all consequence classes.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第19495号 / 理博第4155号 / 新制||理||1597(附属図書館) / 32531 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)准教授 福間 將文, 教授 川合 光, 教授 田中 貴浩 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM