Polysaccharide hydrogels have found several applications in the food industry, in biomedicine, and cosmetics. The study of polysaccharide hydrogels offers a challenging scenario of intrinsic heterogeneities in the crosslinking density and large time and space ranges that characterize a number of dynamic processes entailing segmental motions, water diffusion, and small-molecule diffusion. The un...

We determine the time- and force-dependent viscoelastic responses of reconstituted networks of microtubules that have been strongly crosslinked by biotin-streptavidin bonds. To measure the microscale viscoelasticity of such networks, we use a magnetic tweezers device to apply localized forces. At short time scales, the networks respond nonlinearly to applied force, with stiffening at small forc...

Comparative physiology often provides unique insights in animal structure and function. It is specifically through this lens that we discuss the fundamental properties of skeletal muscle and animal locomotion, incorporating variation in body size and evolved difference among species. For example, muscle frequencies in vivo are highly constrained by body size, which apparently tunes muscle use t...

We revisit the model for a two-well phase transformation in a linearly elastic body that was introduced and studied in Mielke et al. (2002 Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 162: , 137-177). This energetic rate-independent system is posed in terms of the elastic displacement and an internal variable that gives the phase portion of the second phase. We use a new approach based on mutual recovery sequence...

Normal Stresses and Interface Displacement: Influence of Viscoelasticity on Enhanced Oil Recovery Efficiency — One of chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods consists in injecting aqueous solutions of polymers into the reservoir in order to improve mobility ratio between the injected fluid and the remaining oil. This “polymer flooding” process is usually only characterized with the low she...

Thermoelectric recovery is promising for improved efficiency in a broad variety of combustion systems, but thermal interface resistances and the need for scalable and package-compatible thermoelectric materials is a major roadblock. We report progress on six different activities this year, which are all in support of the major goal of novel materials for thermoelectric waste-heat recovery: 1) T...

Waste utilization has gained more and more interest. In this study, crumb rubber and diatomite were used to modify asphalt binder and the short-term aging effects on the properties of modified asphalts were evaluated. Three kinds of modified asphalt were prepared; they are diatomite modified asphalt (DA), crumb rubber modified asphalt (RA), and diatomite and crumb rubber compound modified aspha...

Advanced high strength steels (AHSS) are engineered to have both high strength and enhanced formability characteristics. Yet, the formed components undergo springback due to elastic recovery after removal of the forming tools. This severely affects the dimensional accuracy of the part. Many techniques have been evolved to deal with springback. A simple approach is to design forming tools that c...

The increase use of crumb rubber in flexible pavements requires the better understanding of its effect on physical and rheological properties of rubberised bitumen binders. The performance properties of rubberised bitumen binder are influenced by the blending conditions and crumb rubber content. The main objective of this research is to investigate the effect of various crumb rubber content on ...