Localisation of stress-affected chemical reactions in solids described by coupled mechanics-diffusion-reaction models

Chemical reactions in solids can induce chemical expansion of the solid that causes the emergence of the mechanical stresses, which, in turn, can affect the rate of the reaction. A typical example of this is the reaction of Si lithiation, where the stresses can inhibit the reaction up to the reaction locking. The reactions in solids can take place within some volume (bulk reactions) or localise at a chemical reaction front (localised reactions). These cases are typically described by different thermo-chemo-mechanical theories that contain the source/sink terms either in the bulk or at the propagating infinitely-thin interface, respectively. However, there are reactions that can reveal both regimes; hence, there is a need to link the theories describing the bulk and the localised (sharp-interface) reactions. The present paper bridges this gap and shows that when a certain structure of the Helmholtz free energy density is adopted (based on the ideas from the phase-field methods), it is possible to obtain (in the limit) the same driving force for the chemical reaction (hence, the same reaction kinetics) as derived within the theory of the sharp-interface chemical reactions based on the chemical affinity tensor

Stability of chemical reaction fronts in solids:Analytical and numerical approaches

Localized chemical reactions in deformable solids are considered. A chemical transformation is accompanied by the transformation strain and emerging mechanical stresses, which affect the kinetics of the chemical reaction front to the reaction arrest. A chemo-mechanical coupling via the chemical affinity tensor is used, in which the stresses affect the reaction rate. The emphasis is made on the stability of the propagating reaction front in the vicinity of the blocked state. There are two major novel contributions. First, it is shown that for a planar reaction front, the diffusion of the gaseous-type reactant does not influence the stability of the reaction front – the stability is governed only by the mechanical properties of solid reactants and stresses induced by the transformation strain and the external loading, which corresponds to the mathematically analogous phase transition problem. Second, the comparison of two computational approaches to model the reaction front propagation is performed – the standard finite-element method with a remeshing technique to resolve the moving interface is compared to the cut-finite-element-based approach, which allows the interface to cut through the elements and to move independently of the finite-element mesh. For stability problems considered in the present paper, the previously-developed implementation of the cut-element approach has been extended with the additional post-processing procedure that obtains more accurate stresses and strains, relying on the fact that the structured grid is used in the implementation. The approaches are compared using a range of chemo-mechanical problems with stable and unstable reaction fronts.</p

EQUILIBRIUM AND STABILITY OF TWO-PHASE DEFORMATIONS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF PHASE TRANSITION ZONES

Summary Stress-induced phase transitions in nonlinear elastic materials are analyzed within the framework of phase transition zones. A procedure to examine the stability of piece-wise homogeneous two-phase deformation is developed. Spherically symmetric two-phase deformation are studied in detail to demonstrate efficiency of the approaches developed

What is the effect of alcohol consumption on the risk of chronic widespread pain? : A Mendelian randomisation study using UK Biobank

This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank resource, application no. 1144, and was funded by the University of Aberdeen. MF is funded by the EU FP7 project PainOmics (contract #602736). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declarePeer reviewedPostprin

Altered erythrocyte membrane protein composition mirrors pleiotropic effects of hypertension susceptibility genes and disease pathogenesis

The study was designed to assess the effects of polymorphisms in genes associated with essential hypertension on the variation of erythrocyte membrane proteins (EMPs) in hypertensive patientsyesBelgorod State National Research Universit

A comprehensive contribution of genes for aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling pathway to hypertension susceptibility

The present study was designed to investigate whether genetic polymorphisms of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signaling pathway are involved in the molecular basis of essential hypertension (EH

Genetics of «atopic march» syntropy

The study of the phenomenon of a combination of several diseases at the same time in an individual, actualized in the second half of the 19th century, is being actively analyzed 150 years later using genetic approaches. We present an overview of the results of such studies in relation to allergic diseases, in particular, a special variant, the so-called «atopic march», the sequential development of eczema, allergic rhinitis and asthma («atopic march» syntropy). The data of genetic and epidemiological studies were summarized, the analysis of genome-wide associative studies was carried out, and the role of mutations in the filaggrin gene (FLG) in the development of the «atopic march» syntropy was considered

Genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies 48 risk variants and highlights the role of the stria vascularis in hearing loss

Hearing loss is one of the top contributors to years lived with disability and is a risk factor for dementia. Molecular evidence on the cellular origins of hearing loss in humans is growing. Here, we performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed and self reported hearing impairment on 723,266 individuals and identified 48 significant loci, 10 of which are novel. A large proportion of associations comprised missense variants, half of which lie within known familial hearing loss loci. We used single-cell RNA-sequencing data from mouse cochlea and brain and mapped common-variant genomic results to spindle, root, and basal cells from the stria vascularis, a structure in the cochlea necessary for normal hearing. Our findings indicate the importance of the stria vascularis in the mechanism of hearing impairment, providing future paths for developing targets for therapeutic intervention in hearing loss.Peer reviewe