As a result of recent advances in micro and nanotechnology, the tiny movements of nanoscale active and passive objects in fluids can be probed with ultrahigh sensitivity and time resolution. The overarching theme of this dissertation is to harness these movements in fluids in order to study fundamental fluid dynamics and develop novel biomedical devices. First, we use the oscillatory movements of nanocantilevers to investigate the scaling behavior of unsteady fluid flow. Here, our expansive experimental data and rigorous theoretical analysis suggest that a generalized scaling parameter combining the length and time scales of the flow governs the scaling. Second, we turn our attention to nanoscale movements of bacteria in a buffer. We develop a simple, robust and sensitive experimental method to detect and track the random movements of bacteria. Using this method, we show evidence that these random movements of bacteria correlate with their antibiotic susceptibility. In the first part of this thesis, we explore, through experimental and theoretical work, the breakdown of the Navier-Stokes equations in oscillatory fluid flows. The Navier-Stokes equations of hydrodynamics are based on two crucial assumptions. First, the fluid is approximated as a continuum, with a well-defined ``fluid particle." Second, the stress in the fluid is assumed to be a linear function of the rate-of-strain, resulting in a so-called Newtonian fluid. If a fluid such as an ideal gas is gradually rarefied, the Navier-Stokes equations begin to fail and a kinetic description of the flow becomes appropriate. The failure of the Navier-Stokes equations can be thought to take place via two different physical mechanisms: either the continuum hypothesis breaks down as a result of a finite size effect; or the local equilibrium is violated due to the high rate of strain. Our experimental approach is to create an unsteady flow by oscillating a finite-sized body in a gas and to measure the dissipation (or the drag force) acting on the body. By using micro and nanofabrication techniques, we independently tune the relevant linear dimensions and the frequencies of the oscillating bodies. We then measure the pressure-dependent dissipation of these micro/nano oscillators in three different gases, Helium, Nitrogen, and Argon. We observe that the scaling of the fluidic dissipation is governed by a subtle interplay between the length scale and the frequency, embodied respectively in the dimensionless Knudsen (Kn) and the Weissenberg ( Wi) numbers. We collapse all the experimental data using a single scaling parameter: Wi + Kn. This new dimensionless parameter, which can be regarded as a generalized Knudsen number, combines the relevant linear dimension and the frequency of the body; it is rooted in Galilean invariance and can be obtained rigorously from the Chapman-Enskog expansion of the Boltzmann equation. In the second part of the thesis, we turn to the movements of active micro-swimmers in a buffer. This portion of the work is motivated by a serious global public health problem: the rise of multi-drug resistant bacteria. One way to prevent this threat from growing is to treat bacterial infections with effective antibiotics using the minimum dosage. However, currently-used antibiotic susceptibility tests (ASTs), which determine whether or not bacterial isolates from a patient are susceptible to administered antibiotics, take too long. Here, we aim to develop a robust and rapid AST by exploiting a recently-observed microbiological phenomenon: various nanomechanical movements of bacteria subside promptly (within minutes) when the bacteria are exposed to an effective antibiotic. Our approach is to transduce bacterial movements into electrical voltage fluctuations in a microchannel filled with a buffer solution. When a small but constant current is driven through the microchannel, bacterial movements are converted into strong voltage fluctuations due to the fact that they modulate the effective microchannel diameter. Our experiments with E. coli show that the proposed detection method can provide antibiotic susceptibility results in ~1 hour, making it a promising rapid AST. Because this approach is based on a simple electrical measurement and does not require delicate process steps and instrumentation, it may eventually be used at the point of care. / 2019-03-09T00:00:00Z

Various analytical, semi-analytical, and empirical models have been proposed to characterize rate and pressure behavior as a function of time in tight/shale gas systems featuring a horizontal well with multiple hydraulic fractures. Despite a small number of analytical models and published numerical studies there is currently little consensus regarding the large-scale flow behavior over time in such systems. The purpose of this work is to construct a fit-for-purpose numerical simulator which will account for a variety of production features pertinent to these systems, and to use this model to study the effects of various parameters on flow behavior. Specific features examined in this work include hydraulically fractured horizontal wells, multiple porosity and permeability fields, desorption, and micro-scale flow effects. The theoretical basis of the model is described in Chapter I, along with a validation of the model. We employ the numerical simulator to examine various tight gas and shale gas systems and to illustrate and define the various flow regimes which progressively occur over time. We visualize the flow regimes using both specialized plots of rate and pressure functions, as well as high-resolution maps of pressure distributions. The results of this study are described in Chapter II. We use pressure maps to illustrate the initial linear flow into the hydraulic fractures in a tight gas system, transitioning to compound formation linear flow, and then into elliptical flow. We show that flow behavior is dominated by the fracture configuration due to the extremely low permeability of shale. We also explore the possible effect of microscale flow effects on gas effective permeability and subsequent gas species fractionation. We examine the interaction of sorptive diffusion and Knudsen diffusion. We show that microscale porous media can result in a compositional shift in produced gas concentration without the presence of adsorbed gas. The development and implementation of the micro-flow model is documented in Chapter III. This work expands our understanding of flow behavior in tight gas and shale gas systems, where such an understanding may ultimately be used to estimate reservoir properties and reserves in these types of reservoirs.

No description available.

No description available.

Various analytical, semi-analytical, and empirical models have been proposed to characterize rate and pressure behavior as a function of time in tight/shale gas systems featuring a horizontal well with multiple hydraulic fractures. Despite a small number of analytical models and published numerical studies there is currently little consensus regarding the large-scale flow behavior over time in such systems. The purpose of this work is to construct a fit-for-purpose numerical simulator which will account for a variety of production features pertinent to these systems, and to use this model to study the effects of various parameters on flow behavior. Specific features examined in this work include hydraulically fractured horizontal wells, multiple porosity and permeability fields, desorption, and micro-scale flow effects. The theoretical basis of the model is described in Chapter I, along with a validation of the model. We employ the numerical simulator to examine various tight gas and shale gas systems and to illustrate and define the various flow regimes which progressively occur over time. We visualize the flow regimes using both specialized plots of rate and pressure functions, as well as high-resolution maps of pressure distributions. The results of this study are described in Chapter II. We use pressure maps to illustrate the initial linear flow into the hydraulic fractures in a tight gas system, transitioning to compound formation linear flow, and then into elliptical flow. We show that flow behavior is dominated by the fracture configuration due to the extremely low permeability of shale. We also explore the possible effect of microscale flow effects on gas effective permeability and subsequent gas species fractionation. We examine the interaction of sorptive diffusion and Knudsen diffusion. We show that microscale porous media can result in a compositional shift in produced gas concentration without the presence of adsorbed gas. The development and implementation of the micro-flow model is documented in Chapter III. This work expands our understanding of flow behavior in tight gas and shale gas systems, where such an understanding may ultimately be used to estimate reservoir properties and reserves in these types of reservoirs.

No description available.

Manufacturing of electronics devices, continuously decreasing in size, commonly requires the vapor phase deposition of materials into small structures on a wafer, often at a nanometer scale. In this thesis the goal is to simulate vapor-phase deposition processes at a scale where fully atomistic simulations using Molecular Dynamics are no longer feasible. This is achieved by combing two methods, one simulating the gas flow and deposition processes and another method simulating the changing surface. A Particle Monte Carlo method, specifically designed for free molecular flow, the typical flow regime at this length scale, is used. The simulation of growing surfaces uses the Level Set Method. Combining these two methods requires some additional coupling steps presented in this work. With the coupled model, different deposition processes are simulated within trenches to observe how well these processes perform for achieving a uniform deposition, as well as evaluating different process conditions.:Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations List of Symbols 1 Introduction 2 Basics 2.1 Surface deposition processes 2.1.1 Chemical Vapor Deposition 2.1.2 Atomic Layer Deposition 2.1.3 Physical Vapor Deposition 2.2 Simulation approaches for surface depositions 2.2.1 Modeling chemical reactions on a surface 2.2.2 Interaction tables for PVD 2.3 Flow regimes 2.4 Molecular Dynamics 2.5 Particle Monte Carlo 2.6 Marker Particle Method 2.7 Level Set Method 2.7.1 Re-initialization of the signed distance function 2.7.2 Extension Velocities 2.7.3 Fast Marching Method 2.7.4 Upwind scheme 2.7.5 Curvature 2.8 Marching-Squares/Cubes Algorithm 3 Methods and Implementation 3.1 Software 3.1.1 External libraries 3.1.2 Geosect 3.2 Initialization of the signed distance field 3.3 Coupling between particle simulations and Level Set 3.3.1 The simulation cycle 3.3.2 Conversion from a grid to a discrete mesh 3.3.3 Extension of growth rates from a mesh to a grid 3.4 Integrating the Level Set Equation 3.4.1 Splitting the number of particles between different steps 3.4.2 Re-initializing the signed distance function 3.4.3 Handling surface coverage 3.4.4 The full update of the surface 3.5 Curvature dependent reflow 3.6 Level Set for radial symmetry 4 Verification 4.1 Testing different integration schemes 4.1.1 Growth of a circle in a linear velocity field 4.1.2 PVD in trenches 4.2 Mass preservation during curvature dependent reflow 4.3 Comparisons between 2D, radial 2D and 3D 4.3.1 Comparing 2D and 3D 4.3.2 Comparing radial 2D and 3D 5 Process Simulations 5.1 Resputter process using a PVD 5.1.1 Simulations and their parameters 5.1.2 Surfaces after the deposition step 5.1.3 Surface growth in the resputter step 5.1.4 Conditions for improved layer thickness 5.2 CVD with an effective sticking coefficient 5.3 Incomplete ALD cycles 5.4 Deposition onto a complex 3D shape 6 Conclusion Bibliography Acknowledgment Statement of authorship