Constitutive equations and failure criteria for amorphous polymeric solids

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p. 104-109).Anand & Gurtin (2002) have recently developed a continuum theory for the elastic-viscoplastic deformation of amorphous solids. Their theory is motivated by and builds on the work of Parks, Argon, Boyce, Arruda, and their co-workers (e.g. Boyce et al., 1988; Arruda & Boyce, 1993) on modeling the plastic deformation of amorphous polymers. The theory of Anand & Gurtin (2002) carefully accounts for restrictions placed on constitutive assumptions by frame-indifference and by a new mathematical definition of an amorphous material based on the notion that the constitutive relations for such materials should be invariant under all rotations of the reference configuration and, independently, all rotations of the relaxed configuration. Also, they explicitly account for the dependence of the Helmholtz free energy on the plastic deformation in a thermodynamically consistent manner, a dependence which leads directly to a backstress in the underlying flow rule. In addition to the standard kinematic and stress variables, their theory contains two internal variables: a variable s > 0 that represents an isotropic intermolecular resistance to plastic flow; and an unsigned variable 7 that represents the local free-volume. In this thesis, we extend the work of Anand & Gurtin (2002) to model the deformation and fracture response of amorphous glassy polymers which exhibit both a ductile mechanism of fracture associated with large plastic stretches and subsequent chain scission and a brittle mode of fracture.(cont.) For polymers such as polycarbonate (PC), the brittle fracture mode is characterized by a mechanism of elastic cavitational failure, which results in cleavage-type fracture similar to that observed in brittle fracture of metals. In contrast, polymers such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) exhibit a brittle mode of fracture characterized by craze initiation, flow, and breakdown. To model crazing, we introduce a continuum constitutive relation which contains the three ingredients of crazing - initiation, widening, and breakdown - in a suitable statistically-averaged sense. We allow for local inelastic deformation due to shear yielding in possible concurrence with that due to crazing, and introduce a craze initiation criterion based on the local maximum principal tensile stress reaching a critical value which depends on the local mean normal stress. After crazing has initiated, our continuum model represents the transition from shear-flow to craze-flow by a change in the viscoplastic flow rule, in which the dilational inelastic deformation associated with craze-plasticity is taken to occur in the direction of the local maximum principal stress. Finally, for situations in which the local maximum tensile stress is positive, craze-breakdown and fracture is taken to occur when a local tensile plastic craze strain reaches a critical value. We apply our model to the techologically important polymer, polymethylmethacrylate ...by Brian Paul Gearing.Ph.D

The Flexure-based Microgap Rheometer (FMR)

Submitted to J. Rheol.We describe the design and construction of a new microrheometer designed to facilitate the viscometric study of complex fluids with very small sample volumes (1-10 μl)and gaps of micrometer dimensions. The Flexure-based Microgap Rheometer (FMR) is a shear-rate-controlled device capable of measuring the shear stress in a plane Couette configuration with directly-controlled gaps between 1 μm and 200 μm. White light interferometry and a three-point nanopositioning stage using piezo-stepping motors are used to control the parallelism of the upper and lower shearing surfaces which are constructed from glass optical flats. A compound flexure system is used to hold the fluid sample testing unit between a drive spring connected to an ‘inchworm’ motor and an independent sensor spring. Displacements in the sensing flexure are detected using an inductive proximity sensor. Ready optical access to the transparent shearing surfaces enables monitoring of the structural evolution in the gap with a long working-distance video-microscope. This configuration then allows us to determine the microgap-dependent flow behavior of complex fluids over 5 decades of shear rate. We demonstrate the capability of the FMR by characterizing the complex stress and gap dependent flow behavior of a typical microstructured food product (mayonnaise) over the range of gaps from 8 to 100 μm and stresses from 10 to 1500 Pa. We correlate the gap-dependent rheological response to the microstructure of the emulsion and changes induced in the material by prolonged shearing.Dupont MIT Allianc

Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease

We identified rare coding variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in a 3-stage case-control study of 85,133 subjects. In stage 1, 34,174 samples were genotyped using a whole-exome microarray. In stage 2, we tested associated variants (P<1×10-4) in 35,962 independent samples using de novo genotyping and imputed genotypes. In stage 3, an additional 14,997 samples were used to test the most significant stage 2 associations (P<5×10-8) using imputed genotypes. We observed 3 novel genome-wide significant (GWS) AD associated non-synonymous variants; a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905/p.P522R, P=5.38×10-10, OR=0.68, MAFcases=0.0059, MAFcontrols=0.0093), a risk variant in ABI3 (rs616338/p.S209F, P=4.56×10-10, OR=1.43, MAFcases=0.011, MAFcontrols=0.008), and a novel GWS variant in TREM2 (rs143332484/p.R62H, P=1.55×10-14, OR=1.67, MAFcases=0.0143, MAFcontrols=0.0089), a known AD susceptibility gene. These protein-coding changes are in genes highly expressed in microglia and highlight an immune-related protein-protein interaction network enriched for previously identified AD risk genes. These genetic findings provide additional evidence that the microglia-mediated innate immune response contributes directly to AD development

A novel Alzheimer disease locus located near the gene encoding tau protein

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordAPOE ε4, the most significant genetic risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD), may mask effects of other loci. We re-analyzed genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP) Consortium in APOE ε4+ (10 352 cases and 9207 controls) and APOE ε4- (7184 cases and 26 968 controls) subgroups as well as in the total sample testing for interaction between a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and APOE ε4 status. Suggestive associations (P<1 × 10-4) in stage 1 were evaluated in an independent sample (stage 2) containing 4203 subjects (APOE ε4+: 1250 cases and 536 controls; APOE ε4-: 718 cases and 1699 controls). Among APOE ε4- subjects, novel genome-wide significant (GWS) association was observed with 17 SNPs (all between KANSL1 and LRRC37A on chromosome 17 near MAPT) in a meta-analysis of the stage 1 and stage 2 data sets (best SNP, rs2732703, P=5·8 × 10-9). Conditional analysis revealed that rs2732703 accounted for association signals in the entire 100-kilobase region that includes MAPT. Except for previously identified AD loci showing stronger association in APOE ε4+ subjects (CR1 and CLU) or APOE ε4- subjects (MS4A6A/MS4A4A/MS4A6E), no other SNPs were significantly associated with AD in a specific APOE genotype subgroup. In addition, the finding in the stage 1 sample that AD risk is significantly influenced by the interaction of APOE with rs1595014 in TMEM106B (P=1·6 × 10-7) is noteworthy, because TMEM106B variants have previously been associated with risk of frontotemporal dementia. Expression quantitative trait locus analysis revealed that rs113986870, one of the GWS SNPs near rs2732703, is significantly associated with four KANSL1 probes that target transcription of the first translated exon and an untranslated exon in hippocampus (P≤1.3 × 10-8), frontal cortex (P≤1.3 × 10-9) and temporal cortex (P≤1.2 × 10-11). Rs113986870 is also strongly associated with a MAPT probe that targets transcription of alternatively spliced exon 3 in frontal cortex (P=9.2 × 10-6) and temporal cortex (P=2.6 × 10-6). Our APOE-stratified GWAS is the first to show GWS association for AD with SNPs in the chromosome 17q21.31 region. Replication of this finding in independent samples is needed to verify that SNPs in this region have significantly stronger effects on AD risk in persons lacking APOE ε4 compared with persons carrying this allele, and if this is found to hold, further examination of this region and studies aimed at deciphering the mechanism(s) are warranted

Friction in sheet forming

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44).by Brian P. Gearing.S.M