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Full-Text Articles in Materials Science and Engineering
Controlling Mechanical Properties Of Well-Defined Polymer Networks, Ipek Sacligil
Controlling Mechanical Properties Of Well-Defined Polymer Networks, Ipek Sacligil
Doctoral Dissertations
Polymer networks are one of the most versatile and highly studied material class that revolutionized many aspects of life. Connecting the final network properties to the molecular parameters of its building blocks remains a major research thrust. Recent advances in network synthesis techniques allowed for accurate predictions of elastic modulus in model networks. Tew Group has developed highly efficient, thiol-norbornene networks with controllable mechanical properties. Chapter 2 focuses on modifying the gel fracture energy predicted by Lake-Thomas theory by accounting for loop defects. This study allowed for a priori estimates of gel fracture energy by combining theory, experiments, and simulations. …
Theory And Improved Methods For Probing The Cavitation To Fracture Transition, Christopher Barney
Theory And Improved Methods For Probing The Cavitation To Fracture Transition, Christopher Barney
Doctoral Dissertations
A material is considered soft when its bulk modulus is significantly greater than its shear modulus. Rubbery polymers are a class of soft materials where resistance to extension is mainly entropic in nature. Polymeric soft solids differ from liquids due to the presence of a percolated network of strong bonds that resist deformation and flow on a given time scale. The incompressible nature, entropically driven elasticity, and molecular scale network structure of soft polymeric solids combine to impart unique mechanical behavior that often results in complex material responses to simple loading situations. An important example of this is cavitation in …
Cavitation And Puncture For Mechanical Measurement Of Soft Solids, Sami Fakhouri
Cavitation And Puncture For Mechanical Measurement Of Soft Solids, Sami Fakhouri
Doctoral Dissertations
Gels and other soft elastic networks are a ubiquitous and important class of materials whose unique properties enable special behavior, but generally elude characterization due to the inherent difficulty in manipulating them. This work focuses on understanding and utilizing large, local deformation and failure in soft solids for characterization of the mechanical properties of otherwise inaccessible or nonmanipulable materials. Cavitation Rheology (CR), a pioneering mechanical measurement technique in this regard, where local material failure is imposed and monitored at the tip of a pressurized needle, serves a central role in this thesis. First, CR is used to make in vivo …