Collecting microlymphatics play a vital role in promoting lymph flow from the initial lymphatics in the interstitial spaces to the large transport lymph ducts. In most tissues, the primary mechanism for producing this flow is the spontaneous contractions of the lymphatic wall. Individual units, known as lymphangion, are separated by valves that help prevent backflow when the vessel contracts, thus promoting flow through the lymphatic network. Lymphatic contractile activity is inhibited by flow in isolated lymphatics, however there are virtually no in situ measurements of lymph flow in these vessels. Initially, a high speed imaging system was set up to image in situ preparations at 500 fps. These images were then manually processed to extract information regarding lymphocyte velocity (-4 to 10 mm/sec), vessel diameter (25 to 165 um), and particle location. Fluid modeling was performed to obtain reasonable estimates of wall shear stress (-8 to 17 dynes/cm2). One of the difficulties encountered was the time consuming methods of manual particle tracking. Using previously captured images, an image correlation method was developed to automate lymphatic flow measurements and to track wall movements as the vessel contracts. Using this method the standard error of prediction for velocity measurements was 0.4 mm/sec and for diameter measurements it was 7.0 µm. It was found that the actual physical quantity being measured through this approach is somewhere between the spatially averaged velocity and the maximum velocity of a Poiseuille flow model.

In the study, vibrations of small elastic cylinders mounted in the shear flow of an air jet are investigated experimentally. In such cases, the amplitude of the cylinder oscillation changed along with the variation of the jet velocity gradient is due to the influence of fluid elastic instability. The experiment is based on the method of the magnetic field induction to measure the motion of the small cylinder, and it involves measurements of the varying velocity in a jet through the hot- wire anemometer. We focus on the fluid-elastic instability of a circular cylinder in shear flow. The vibration behaviors of the cylinder above the critical condition are be examined with different velocity gradients, mass ratios and damping factors. The vibration amplitude of the cylinder is also larger as velocity gradient is larger. With lower mass ratios and damping factor, moreover, the orbit of cylinder is larger. When the velocity gradient is increasing, the frequency of cylinder vibration becomes higher.

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This research is aimed to investigate the fluid-elastic instability of the motion simulation using a single cylinder and two cylinders within the context of shear flows. T/D, shear parameter and mass ratio are parameters to be investigated. Besides, cylindrical motion treks and the amplitude are also analyzed. Continuity equation and momentum equations are solved alternatively using a CFD package, Fluent 6.3.26. The force caused by the flow interacts with the cylindrical motion. Thus Motion meshing techniques together with the cylindrical motion equations are employed in the simulation. Under different flow conditions, flow types and cylindrical motion models, lock-in and fluid-elastic instability are studied. The results show that motion and flow types of a single cylinder within the context of the uniform flow have a general agreement with the related literatures. In terms of the shear flow, however, as the shear parameter increases, the fluid-elastic instability is caused, and thus amplitude of the cylinder augments considerably. Further, double cylinders in the shear flow are studied. Double cylinder arrangements( classified as side-by-side and tandem) and the distance between cylinders are the factors to cause fluid-elastic instability. Compared with the single cylindrical motion, double cylindrical motion¡¦s critical flow velocity is smaller than the single cylindrical motion, which means double cylindrical motion are more subject to fluid-elastic instability.

On the toughening of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), successful results in the phase-separated Zr63.8Ni16.2Cu15Al5 BMG have achieved compressive ductility over 15% through the computational-thermodynamic approach. In this study, the phase-separated Zr63.8Ni16.2Cu15Al5 BMG was compressed to nominal strains of 3%, 7%, and 10% at low strain rates (~10-4 s-1) and the results demonstrated that the BMG exhibited apparent uniform deformation initially, followed by visible local shear bands development. Afterwards, a single shear along the principal shear plane was soon developed and mainly dominated the whole deformation process. The principal shear contributed more than 2/3 of the overall plastic strain until failure. It was also found that the local shear strain varied along the principal shear plane and decreased monotonically from the shear band initiation site. Subsequently, in-situ compression experiments were conducted to monitor the change of sample shape during deformation in order to properly correlate with the stress-strain curve. The observed images showed that there was a one-to-one correspondence between the intermittent sample sliding and flow serration in the plastic region of stress-strain curve. Further investigations on flow serration were conducted on the Pd40Ni40P20 BMG through the compression experiments equipped with high-sensitivity strain gauges directly attached to two opposite sides of the test sample. There was an accompanied displacement burst when a shear band starts to propagate during deformation and this displacement burst would be accurately captured by the high-sensitivity strain gauges. Based on the displacement-time profile for one serration, shear-band propagating speed can be estimated and found to be insensitive to the applied strain rates (or the applied crosshead speeds). The disappearance of flow serration at high strain rates should be a result that the signal of displacement burst was overwhelmed by the applied strain rate. Using the shear strain rate data, the measured viscosity within a propagating shear band was found to be relatively low, which is in similar to the viscosity values reported in the supercooled liquid region during homogeneous deformation. In comparison with shear band propagation in the brittle Mg58Cu31Y6Nd5 and Au49Ag5.5Pd2.3Cu26.9Si16.3, moderately ductile Cu50Zr43Al7 and Pd40Ni40P20, and highly ductile phased-separated Zr63.8Ni16.2Cu15Al5 systems, the ductility of BMGs appears to be closely related to the dynamics during shear band propagation. The more ductile in nature the metallic glass is, the slower the shear band propagating speed would become. We also made attempts to investigate the shear band propagation in the porous Mo particles reinforced Mg58Cu28.5Gd11Ag2.5 bulk metallic glass composites (BMGCs) with up to 10% compressive failure strain. It was found that flow serration was absent in the stress-strain curve. Using high-sensitivity strain gauges, no distinct displacement burst was detected in the displacement-time profile. The diappearance of flow serration for the current porous Mo particles reinforced Mg58Cu28.5Gd11Ag2.5 BMGC is apparently associated with the lack of long-range shear band propagagtion. By employing the approach of separating the homogeneous amorphous matrix into many individual compartments, only short-range shear band propgagation is possible in the current Mg-based BMGC. An effective free spacing considering the spacing between two porous Mo particles and porous Mo particle size was applied to interpret the development of shear band propagation and is a useful indicator for the design of BMGC with high ductility.

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The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on December 30, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. Eric Sandvol. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 293-298). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 25, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Brent L. Rosenblad. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, [90] p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-63).