This work describes the results of experimental study of the flow of soft objects (microgels) through microchannels. This work was carried with the intention of building a fundamental biophysical model for the flow of neutrophil cells in microcirculatory system. In Chapter 1 we give a summary of the literature describing the flow of cells and “model cells” in microchannels. Paramount to this we developed methods to modify microchannels fabricated in poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS). Originally, these microchannels could not be used to mimic biological microenvironments because they are hydrophobic and have rectangular cross-sections. We designed a method to create durable protein coatings in PDMS microchannels, as outlined in Chapter 3. Surface modification of the channels was accomplished by a two-step approach which included (i) the site-specific photografting of a layer of poly(acrylamide) (PAAm) to the PDMS surface and (ii) the bioconjugation of PAAm with the desired protein. This method is compatible with different channel geometries and it exhibits excellent longevity under shear stresses up to 1 dyn/cm. The modification was proven to be successful for various proteins of various molecular weights and does not affect protein activity. The microchannels were further modified by modifying the cross-sections in order to replicate cardiovascular flow conditions. In our work, we transformed the rectangular cross-sections into circular corss-sections. Microchannels were modified by polymerizing a liquid silicone oligomer around a gas stream coaxially introduced into the channel, as outlined in Chapter 3. We demonstrated the ability to control the diameter of circular cross-sections of microchannels. The flow behaviour of microgels in microchannels was studied in a series of experiments aimed at studying microgel flow (i) under electrostatic interactions (Chapter 4), (ii) binding of proteins attached to the microgel and the microchannel (Chapter 5) and (iii) under the conditions of varying channel geometry (Chapter 6). This work overall present’s new methods to study the flow of soft objects such as cells, in the confined geometries of microchannels. Using these methods, variables can be independently probed and analyzed.

Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are commonly used to control particulate emissions from recovery boilers in the kraft pulping process. The electrical resistivity of entrained particulates is known to affect the performance of ESPs. There are many factors which influence resistivity of particulate matter, such as field strength, time of exposure, particle size, particle composition, temperature, and flue gas composition. The objective of this study was to identify the ideal operating conditions and dust particle characteristics which lead to an optimum dust resistivity and maximized ESP efficiency. The effect of these factors was examined through a variety of experimental and analytical techniques on kraft recovery boiler ash samples and synthetically prepared samples. It was concluded that particle composition, gas composition, and ambient temperature had the most pronounced effects, while the other factors, such as field strength and exposure time, had a smaller impact on particle resistivity.

Parallel-plate electrostatic actuators driven by a voltage difference between two electrodes suffer from an operation range limited to 30% of the gap that has significantly restrained their applications in Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In this thesis, the travel range of an electrostatic actuator made of a micro-cantilever beam electrode above a fixed electrode is extended quasi-statically to 90% of the capacitor gap by introducing a voltage regulator (controller) circuit designed for low frequency actuation. The developed large-stroke actuator is valuable contribution to applications in optical filters, optical modulators, digital micro-mirrors and micro-probe based memory disk drives. To implement the low-frequency large-stroke actuator, the beam tip velocity is measured by a vibrometer, the corresponding signal is integrated in the regulator circuit to obtain the displacement feedback, which is used to modify the input voltage of the actuator to reach a target location. The voltage regulator reduces the total voltage, and therefore the electrostatic force, once the beam approaches the fixed electrode so that the balance is maintained between the mechanical restoring force and the electrostatic force that enables the actuator to achieve the desired large stroke. A mathematical model is developed for the actuator based on the mode shapes of the cantilever beam using experimentally identified parameters that yields good accuracy in predicting both the open loop and the closed loop responses. The low-frequency actuator also yields superharmonic resonances that are observed here for the first time in electrostatic actuators. The actuator can also be configured either as a bi-stable actuator using a low-frequency controller or as a chaotic resonator using a high-frequency controller. The high-frequency controller yields large and bounded chaotic attractors for a wide range of excitation magnitudes and frequencies making it suitable for sensor applications. Bifurcation diagrams reveal periodic motions, softening behavior, period doubling cascades, one-well and two-well chaos, superharmonic resonances and a reverse period doubling cascade. To verify the observed chaotic oscillations, Lyapunov exponents are calculated and found to be positive. Furthermore, a chaotic resonator with a quadratic controller is designed that not only requires less voltage, but also produces more robust and larger motions. Another metric of chaos, information entropy, is used to verify the chaotic attractors in this case. It is found that the attractors have a common information entropy of 0.732 independent of the excitation amplitude and frequency.

This thesis develops methods to exploit static and dynamic instabilities in electrostatic MEMS to develop new MEMS devices, namely dynamically actuated micro switches and binary micro gas sensors. Models are developed for the devices under consideration where the structures are treated as elastic continua. The electrostatic force is treated as a nonlinear function of displacement derived under the assumption of parallel-plate theorem. The Galerkin method is used to discretize the distributed-parameter models, thus reducing the governing partial differential equations into sets of nonlinear ordinary-differential equations. The shooting method is used to numerically solve those equations to obtain the frequency-response curves of those devices and the Floquet theory is used to investigate their stability. To develop the dynamically actuated micro switches, we investigate the response of microswitches to a combination of DC and AC excitations. We find that dynamically actuated micro switches can realize significant energy savings, up to 60 %, over comparable switches traditionally actuated by pure DC voltage. We devise two dynamic actuation methods: a fixed-frequency method and a shifted-frequency method. While the fixed-frequency method is simpler to implement, the shifted-frequency method can minimize the switching time to the same order as that realized using traditional DC actuation. We also introduce a parameter identification technique to estimate the switch geometrical and material properties, namely thickness, modulus of elasticity, and residual stress. We also develop a new detection technique for micro mass sensors that does not require any readout electronics. We use this method to develop static and dynamic binary mass sensors. The sensors are composed of a cantilever beam connected to a rigid plate at its free end and electrostatically coupled to an electrode underneath it. Two versions of micro mass sensors are presented: static binary mass sensor and dynamic binary mass sensor. Sensitivity analysis shows that the sensitivity of our static mass sensor represents an upper bound for the sensitivity of comparable statically detected inertial mass sensors. It also shows that the dynamic binary mass sensors is three orders of magnitude more sensitive than the static binary mass sensor. We equip our mass sensor with a polymer detector, doped Polyaniline, to realize a formaldehyde vapor sensor and demonstrate its functionality experimentally. We find that while the static binary gas sensor is simpler to realize than the dynamic binary gas sensor, it is more susceptible to external disturbances.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

We present the application of the boundary integral equation method for solving the motion of biological cell or particle under Stokes flow in the presence of electrostatic field. The huge dense matrix-vector product from the boundary integral method poses a computationally challenging problem for solving the large system of equations generated. In our work, we used the precorrected-FFT (pFFT) method to reduce the computational time and memory usage drastically, so that large scale simulations can be performed quickly on a personal computer. Results on the force field acting on the particle, as well as the behavior of the particle through cell trap are presented. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

abstract: The research of this dissertation involved quantitative characterization of electrostatic potential and charge distribution of semiconductor nanostructures using off-axis electron holography, as well as other electron microscopy techniques. The investigated nanostructures included Ge quantum dots, Ge/Si core/shell nanowires, and polytype heterostructures in ZnSe nanobelts. Hole densities were calculated for the first two systems, and the spontaneous polarization for wurtzite ZnSe was determined. Epitaxial Ge quantum dots (QDs) embedded in boron-doped silicon were studied. Reconstructed phase images showed extra phase shifts near the base of the QDs, which was attributed to hole accumulation in these regions. The resulting charge density was (0.03±0.003) holes/nm3, which corresponded to about 30 holes localized to a pyramidal, 25-nm-wide Ge QD. This value was in reasonable agreement with the average number of holes confined to each Ge dot determined using a capacitance-voltage measurement. Hole accumulation in Ge/Si core/shell nanowires was observed and quantified using off-axis electron holography and other electron microscopy techniques. High-angle annular-dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy images and electron holograms were obtained from specific nanowires. The intensities of the former were utilized to calculate the projected thicknesses for both the Ge core and the Si shell. The excess phase shifts measured by electron holography across the nanowires indicated the presence of holes inside the Ge cores. The hole density in the core regions was calculated to be (0.4±0.2) /nm3 based on a simplified coaxial cylindrical model. Homogeneous zincblende/wurtzite heterostructure junctions in ZnSe nanobelts were studied. The observed electrostatic fields and charge accumulation were attributed to spontaneous polarization present in the wurtzite regions since the contributions from piezoelectric polarization were shown to be insignificant based on geometric phase analysis. The spontaneous polarization for the wurtzite ZnSe was calculated to be psp = -(0.0029±0.00013) C/m2, whereas a first principles' calculation gave psp = -0.0063 C/m2. The atomic arrangements and polarity continuity at the zincblende/wurtzite interface were determined through aberration-corrected high-angle annular-dark-field imaging, which revealed no polarity reversal across the interface. Overall, the successful outcomes of these studies confirmed the capability of off-axis electron holography to provide quantitative electrostatic information for nanostructured materials. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Physics 2011

Contact lens production requires high accuracy and good surface integrity. Surface roughness is generally used to measure the index quality of a turning process. It has been an important response because it has direct influence toward the part performance and the production cost. Hence, choosing optimal cutting parameters will not only improve the quality measure but also the productivity. In this study, an ONSI-56 (Onsifocon A) contact lens buttons were used to investigate the triboelectric phenomena and the effects of turning parameters on surface finish of the lens materials. ONSI-56 specimens are machined by Precitech Nanoform Ultra-grind 250 precision machine and the roughness values of the diamond turned surfaces are measured by Taylor Hopson PGI Profilometer. Electrostatics values were measured using electrostatic voltmeter. An artificial neural network (ANN) and response surface (RS) model were developed to predict surface roughness and electrostatic discharge (ESD) on the turned ONSI-56. In the development of predictive models, turning parameters of cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut were considered as model variables. The required data for predictive models were obtained by conducting a series of turning test and measuring the surface roughness and ESD data. Good agreement is observed between the predictive models results and the experimental measurements. The ANN and RSM models for ONSI-56 are compared with each other using mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for accuracy and computational cost.

A presente dissertação estuda a dinâmica uni e tridimensional de uma part cula solitária eletricamente carregada sob a ação de uma onda eletrostática de alta frequência lentamente modulada. A onda dota a partícula de energia potencial elétrica e o seu movimento e conhecido através do emprego do formalismo hamiltoniano, onde se faz a consideração de efeitos relativísticos devido as altas velocidades envolvidas no processo. Enquanto a velocidade máxima experimentada pela partícula permanece suficientemente abaixo da velocidade de fase característica da onda que a acelera, sua dinâmica pode ser bem descrita por uma re nada aproximação ponderomotriz. Com esta abordagem, prevê-se corretamente a velocidade média, máxima e m nima desenvolvida pela partícula ao longo de seu movimento através das curvas que permeiam e envelopam o per l de velocidade. Os limites de validade da aproximação são bem estabelecidos e, uma vez ultrapassados, a partícula com velocidade ressonante e capturada pela onda. Sob as adequadas condições calculadas neste trabalho, o mecanismo de captura instala, espontaneamente, a partícula em fase otima relativa a onda e a acelera a velocidades muito próximas da velocidade da luz no vácuo. Em consonância, o processo de aceleração e otimizado com a focagem da partícula em direção ao eixo de propagação da onda durante um certo intervalo de tempo e de comprimento aproveitáveis. / The present dissertation studies the one and three-dimensional dynamics of an electrically charged solitary particle under the action of a slowly modulated high frequency electrostatic carrier wave. The wave gives the particle electrical potential energy and its movement is known through the use of Hamiltonian formalism, where relativistic e ects are considered due to the high velocities involved in the process. Meanwhile the maximum speed experienced by the particle remains su ciently below the characteristic phase velocity of the accelerating carrier wave, its dynamics can be well described by a re ned ponderomotive approach. With this approach, the average, maximum and minimum speed developed by the particle along its movement through the curves that permeate and envelop the velocity pro le. The limits of validity of the approximation are well established and, once exceeded, the particle with resonant velocity is captured by the wave. Under the appropriate conditions calculated in this work, the capture mechanism spontaneously installs the optimum phase particle relative to the wave and accelerates towards the speed of light in the vacuum. At same time, the acceleration process is optimized by focusing the particle towards the wave propagation axis for a certain usable time interval and length.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2005-04-14Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:06:19Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 marques_vpb_dr_araiq.pdf: 6875606 bytes, checksum: 6e3a2c49ede6d05f9db32af09bf934fc (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Estudos preliminares foram realizados em cerâmicas com propriedades varistoras, à base, SnO2-TiO2-Co2O3, com adições de Nb2O5, Ta2O5, Cr2O3 e Al2O3, preparados por meio de misturas de óxidos em moinho de alta energia, sinterizados em forno tubular na temperatura de 1250ºC durante 90 min em atmosfera de oxigênio, argônio e ambiente. Foram caracterizados quanto à densidade e propriedades elétricas.Terminada essa etapa, o sistema escolhido foi aquele que melhor se adaptou ao propósito do estudo desse trabalho. O sistema escolhido, SnO2-0,75TiO2-0,1Co2O3-0,05Nb2O5 mol %, foi preparado nas mesmas condições que na fase preliminar, sinterizados em atmosfera ambiente, tratados termicamente a 900ºC durante 60 min em atmosfera de oxigênio, e a pressão reduzida (10- 2torr). Em seqüência, essas amostras foram caracterizadas quanto as suas propriedades elétricas (medida tensão-corrente, espectroscopia de impedância e microscopia de força eletrostática) e microestruturais (difração de raios x, microscopia eletrônica de varredura, analise de EDX, analise de EDS, microscopia eletrônica de transmissão e espectroscopia de fotoelétrons induzida por raios x). A medida da altura da barreira foi obtida por meio da técnica de microscopia de força eletrostática através de uma modelagem matemática. / In the present thesis it was studied nonohmic electronic ceramics based on SnO2.TiO2.Co2O3 ternary systems doped with Nb2O5, Ta2O5, Cr2O3 and Al2O3. These systems were prepared using traditional ball milling oxide mixture process. The sintering was conducted using tubular furnace at 1250 ºC for 90 min in different atmospheres: oxygen, argon and ambient atmosphere. Structural, density and electrical properties were investigated in all of the systems. The system presenting superior electrical properties was chosen to be studied concerning relationship between microstructural features and electrical properties. Therefore, SnO2-0.75TiO2-0.1Co2O3-0.05Nb2O5 % mol composition was thermal treated at 900 ºC for 60 min at oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor (10-2torr) atmospheres. After this step, the system was characterized by using different electrical, structural and microstructural techniques (current-voltage, impedance spectroscopy and electronic force image, X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray (EDX), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The potential barrier was mathematical modeled according to electrostatic force images. The mathematical treatment is based on a matrix systems applied to each potential difference existing in the sample. From the solution of the matrix system it is possible to obtain the barrier height as a function of the applied potential.