Advanced mechanics of materials with microstructure

The study of advanced materials aimed at improving human life has been performed since time immemorial. Such studies have created everlasting and greatly revered monuments and have helped revolutionize transportation by ushering the age of lighter–than–air flying machines. Hence a study of the mechanical behavior of advanced materials can pave way for their use for mankind’s benefit. In this school of thought, the aim of this dissertation is to broadly perform two investigations. First, an efficient modeling approach is established to predict the elastic response of cellular materials with distributions of cell geometries. Cellular materials find important applications in structural engineering. The approach does not require complex and time-consuming computational techniques usually associated with modeling such materials. Unlike most current analytical techniques, the modeling approach directly accounts for the cellular material microstructure. The approach combines micropolar elasticity theory and elastic mixture theory to predict the elastic response of cellular materials. The modeling approach is applied to the two dimensional balsa wood material. Predicted properties are in good agreement with experimentally determined properties, which emphasizes the model’s potential to predict the elastic response of other cellular solids, such as open cell and closed cell foams. The second topic concerns intraneural ganglion cysts which are a set of medical conditions that result in denervation of the muscles innervated by the cystic nerve leading to pain and loss of function. Current treatment approaches only temporarily alleviate pain and denervation which, however, does not prevent cyst recurrence. Hence, a mechanistic understanding of the pathogenesis of intraneural ganglion cysts can help clinicians understand them better and therefore devise more effective treatment options. In this study, an analysis methodology using finite element analysis is established to investigate the pathogenesis of intraneural ganglion cysts. Using this methodology, the propagation of these cysts is analyzed in their most common site of occurrence in the human body i.e. the common peroneal nerve. Results obtained using finite element analysis show good correlation with clinical imaging patterns thereby validating the promise of the method to study cyst pathogenesis.

SURFACTANT-OIL INTERACTIONS: FOAMING & TOXICITY

Surfactants find large applications in detergents, paints, coatings, food and pharmaceutical industries. Other than that, much focused work has been carried out in oil recovery in petroleum industries and raw material extraction in mining industries. This is because of their unique structure and ability to simultaneously adhere to materials which are both structurally and physically different. The current thesis focuses on interactions of oil with different commercially available and laboratory synthesized surfactants in terms of characteristics such as foaming, ultrasound exposure and toxicity. Foaming is one important characteristic of surfactants that is widely utilized for oil recovery purposes. Researchers utilize surfactants' special ability to provide foam stability to for more efficient oil herding capability. The foam stability and foam volumes are calculated using static foam height tests. Further dispersion or oil in water emulsion formation is observed using ultrasound sources. As described earlier surfactants are not only used as foams for oil displacement, but they are also used for dispersion purposes where they are key components of dispersant formulations. During such operations, especially in sea conditions where adverse effects on aquatic life are a concern, toxicity of chemicals used becomes an important factor. Our toxicity testing experiments involves different surfactants, solvents and crude oil combinations through exposure to special light luminescent bacteria. The decrease in light intensity of the exposed bacteria is related to toxic effects of the samples.

The Processing of Aluminum Gasarites via Thermal Decomposition of Interstitial Hydrides

Gasarite structures are a unique type of metallic foam containing tubular pores. The original methods for their production limited them to laboratory study despite appealing foam properties. Thermal decomposition processing of gasarites holds the potential to increase the application of gasarite foams in engineering design by removing several barriers to their industrial scale production. The following study characterized thermal decomposition gasarite processing both experimentally and theoretically. It was found that significant variation was inherent to this process therefore several modifications were necessary to produce gasarites using this method. Conventional means to increase porosity and enhance pore morphology were studied. Pore morphology was determined to be more easily replicated if pores were stabilized by alumina additions and powders were dispersed evenly. In order to better characterize processing, high temperature and high ramp rate thermal decomposition data were gathered. It was found that the high ramp rate thermal decomposition behavior of several hydrides was more rapid than hydride kinetics at low ramp rates. This data was then used to estimate the contribution of several pore formation mechanisms to the development of pore structure. It was found that gas-metal eutectic growth can only be a viable pore formation mode if non-equilibrium conditions persist. Bubble capture cannot be a dominant pore growth mode due to high bubble terminal velocities. Direct gas evolution appears to be the most likely pore formation mode due to high gas evolution rate from the decomposing particulate and microstructural pore growth trends. The overall process was evaluated for its economic viability. It was found that thermal decomposition has potential for industrialization, but further refinements are necessary in order for the process to be viable.