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The Thin Ribbon Silk Of The Brown Recluse Spider: Structure, Mechanical Behavior, And Biomimicry, Sean Robert Koebley
The Thin Ribbon Silk Of The Brown Recluse Spider: Structure, Mechanical Behavior, And Biomimicry, Sean Robert Koebley
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Silk has enormous potential as a next-generation material: it is a biopolymer spun from protein at ambient temperature and pressure, and the best spider silks are as strong as steel and tougher than Kevlar. Because of its green production, mechanical robustness, and biocompatibility, silk has been researched for use in a range of engineering and biomedical applications. However, despite exciting recent advances in artificial silk fabrication via recombinant techniques, reserachers remain unable to fully replicate the complex assembly and hierarchical structure of native silks. Herein, we describe our morphological and mechanical characterization of a uniquely simple model silk system that …
Modeling Flocculation And Deflocculation Processes Of Cohesive Sediments, Xiaoteng Shen
Modeling Flocculation And Deflocculation Processes Of Cohesive Sediments, Xiaoteng Shen
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The transport and fate of cohesive sediments are responsible for many engineering, environmental, economic and policy issues that relate to, for example, siltation and dredging in navigation channels, water quality, water turbidity, pollutant transports, and biological ecosystem responses. Our current understanding, however, is insufficient to conduct accurate quantitative predictions of these processes. This is because the cohesive particles in natural waters will flocculate, which determines the settling, and thus the deposition behaviors. The simulation of flocculation processes is a primary challenge since the time variation of Floc Size Distribution (FSD) is controlled by a partial differential equation that also contains …