A new Direct Simulation fibre model was developed which allowed flexibility in the fibre during the simulation of fibre suspension flow.This new model was called the �Chain-of-Spheres �model.It was hypothesised that particle shape and deformation could signi ficantly a ffect partic e dynamics,and also suspension bulk properties such as viscosity.Data collected from the simulation showed that flexible fibres in shear flow resulted in an order of 7 −10% bulk relative viscosity increase over the �rigid �fibre result.Results also es- tablished the existence of a relationship between bulk viscosity and particle sti ffness.In comparison with experimental results,other more conventional rigid fibre based methods appeared to underpredict relative viscosity.The flexible fibre method thus markedly improved the ability to estimate relative viscosity.The curved rigid fibre suspension also exhibited increased viscosity of the order twice that of the equivalent straight rigid fibre suspension.With such sensitivity to fibre shape,this result has some important implications for the quality of fibre inclusions used.For consistent viscosity,the shape quality of the fibres was shown to be important. The �Chain of Spheres �simulation was substantially extended to create a new simulation method with the ability to model the dynamics of arbitrarily shaped particles in the Newtonian flow field.This new �3D Particle �simulation method accounted for the inertial force on the particles,and also allowed particles to be embedded in complex flow fields.This method was used to reproduce known dynamics for common particle shapes,and then to predict the unknown dynamics of various other particle shapes in shear flow. In later sections, the simulation demonstrated inertia-induced particle migration inthe non-linear shear gradient Couette cylinder flow,and was used to predict the fibre orientation within a diverging channel flow.The performance of the method was verified against known experimental measurements,observations and theoretical and numerical results where available.The comparisons revealed that the current method reproduced single particle dynamics with great fidelity. The broad aim of this research was to better understand the microstruc- tural dynamics within the fibre-filled suspension and from it,derive useful engineering information on the bulk flow of these fluids.This thesis represents a move forward to meet this broad aim.It is hoped that future researchers may bene fit from the new approaches and algorithms developed here.

Parallel processing is an important and popular aspect of computing and has been developed to meet the demands of high-performance computing applications. In terms of hardware, a large number of processors connected with high speed networks are put together to solve large scale computationally intensive applications. The computer performance improvements made so far have been based on technological developments. In terms of software, many algorithms are developed for application problem execution on parallel systems to achieve required performance. Clustering and scheduling of tasks for parallel implementation is a well researched problem. Several techniques have been studied to improve performance and reduce problem execution times. In this thesis, a new clustering and scheduling scheme, called flexible clustering and scheduling (FCS) algorithm is proposed. It is a novel approach where clustering and scheduling of tasks can be tuned to achieve maximal speedup or efficiency. The proposed scheme is based on the relation between the costs of computation and communication of task clusters. Vital system parameters such as processor speed, number of processors, and communication bandwidth affect speedup and efficiency. Processor speed and communication bandwidth vary from system to system. Most clustering and scheduling strategies do not take into account the system parameters. The low complexity FCS algorithm can adapt itself to suit different parallel computing platforms and it can also be tuned to suit bounded or unbounded number of processors. The analytical, simulation and experimental studies presented in this thesis validate the claims.

Stuttgart, University, Diss., 2007.

Zugl.: Bremen, Univ., Diss., 2005

Zugl.: Bonn, University, Diss., 2006.

Zugl.: Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2005

Zugl.: Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio University, June, 2000. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2000. / Title from PDF t.p.

Project report (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-108). Also available via the Internet.