Brittle fracture of polymer transient networks

We study the fracture of reversible double transient networks, constituted of water suspensions of entangled surfactant wormlike micelles reversibly linked by various amounts of telechelic polymers. We provide a state diagram that delineates the regime of fracture without necking of the filament from the regime where no fracture or break-up has been observed. We show that filaments fracture when stretched at a rate larger than the inverse of the slowest relaxation time of the networks. We quantitatively demonstrate that dissipation processes are not relevant in our experimental conditions and that, depending on the density of nodes in the networks, fracture occurs in the linear viscoelastic regime or in a non-linear regime. In addition, analysis of the crack opening profiles indicates deviations from a parabolic shape close to the crack tip for weakly connected networks. We demonstrate a direct correlation between the amplitude of the deviation from the parabolic shape and the amount of non linear viscoelasticity

Microfluidic converging/diverging channels optimised for homogeneous extensional deformation

In this work we optimise microfluidic converging/diverging geometries in order to produce constant strain-rates along the centreline of the flow, for performing studies under homogeneous extension. The design is examined for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional flows where the effects of aspect ratio and dimensionless contraction length are investigated. Initially, pressure driven flows of Newtonian fluids under creeping flow conditions are considered, which is a reasonable approximation in microfluidics, and the limits of the applicability of the design in terms of Reynolds numbers are investigated. The optimised geometry is then used for studying the flow of viscoelastic fluids and the practical limitations in terms of Weissenberg number are reported. Furthermore, the optimisation strategy is also applied for electro-osmotic driven flows, where the development of a plug-like velocity profile allows for a wider region of homogeneous extensional deformation in the flow field

Transient overshoot extensional rheology of long-chain branched polyethylenes: Experimental and numerical comparisons between filament stretching and cross-slot flow

This work analyses the high-strain extensional behavior of long-chain branched polyethylenes, employing two novel extensional rheometer devices, the filament stretching rheometer and the cross-slot extensional rheometer. The filament stretching rheometer uses an active feedback loop to control the imposed strain rate on a filament, allowing Hencky strains of around 7 to be reached. The cross-slot extensional rheometer uses optical birefringence patterns to determine the steady-state extensional viscosity from planar stagnation point flow. The two methods probe different strain-rate regimes and in this paper we demonstrate the agreement when the operating regimes overlap and explore the steady-state extensional viscosity in the full strain-rate regime that these two complimentary techniques offer. For long-chain branched materials, the cross-slot birefringence images show a double cusp pattern around the outflow centre line (named W-cusps). Using constitutive modeling of the observed transient overshoot in extension seen in the filament stretching rheometer and using finite element simulations we show that the overshoot explains the W-cusps seen in the cross-slot extensional rheometer, further confirming the agreement between the two experimental techniques. © 2013 The Society of Rheology

Oscillations of a solid sphere falling through a wormlike micellar fluid

We present an experimental study of the motion of a solid sphere falling through a wormlike micellar fluid. While smaller or lighter spheres quickly reach a terminal velocity, larger or heavier spheres are found to oscillate in the direction of their falling motion. The onset of this instability correlates with a critical value of the velocity gradient scale $\Gamma_{c}\sim 1$ s$^{-1}$. We relate this condition to the known complex rheology of wormlike micellar fluids, and suggest that the unsteady motion of the sphere is caused by the formation and breaking of flow-induced structures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Predicting neurological outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with cumulative information; development and internal validation of an artificial neural network algorithm

BACKGROUND: Prognostication of neurological outcome in patients who remain comatose after cardiac arrest resuscitation is complex. Clinical variables, as well as biomarkers of brain injury, cardiac injury, and systemic inflammation, all yield some prognostic value. We hypothesised that cumulative information obtained during the first three days of intensive care could produce a reliable model for predicting neurological outcome following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) using artificial neural network (ANN) with and without biomarkers. METHODS: We performed a post hoc analysis of 932 patients from the Target Temperature Management trial. We focused on comatose patients at 24, 48, and 72 h post-cardiac arrest and excluded patients who were awake or deceased at these time points. 80% of the patients were allocated for model development (training set) and 20% for internal validation (test set). To investigate the prognostic potential of different levels of biomarkers (clinically available and research-grade), patients' background information, and intensive care observation and treatment, we created three models for each time point: (1) clinical variables, (2) adding clinically accessible biomarkers, e.g., neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and (3) adding research-grade biomarkers, e.g., neurofilament light (NFL). Patient outcome was the dichotomised Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) at six months; a good outcome was defined as CPC 1-2 whilst a poor outcome was defined as CPC 3-5. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was calculated for all test sets. RESULTS: AUROC remained below 90% when using only clinical variables throughout the first three days in the ICU. Adding clinically accessible biomarkers such as NSE, AUROC increased from 82 to 94% (p < 0.01). The prognostic accuracy remained excellent from day 1 to day 3 with an AUROC at approximately 95% when adding research-grade biomarkers. The models which included NSE after 72 h and NFL on any of the three days had a low risk of false-positive predictions while retaining a low number of false-negative predictions. CONCLUSIONS: In this exploratory study, ANNs provided good to excellent prognostic accuracy in predicting neurological outcome in comatose patients post OHCA. The models which included NSE after 72 h and NFL on all days showed promising prognostic performance

Simulations of extensional flow in microrheometric devices

We present a detailed numerical study of the flow of a Newtonian fluid through microrheometric devices featuring a sudden contraction–expansion. This flow configuration is typically used to generate extensional deformations and high strain rates. The excess pressure drop resulting from the converging and diverging flow is an important dynamic measure to quantify if the device is intended to be used as a microfluidic extensional rheometer. To explore this idea, we examine the effect of the contraction length, aspect ratio and Reynolds number on the flow kinematics and resulting pressure field. Analysis of the computed velocity and pressure fields show that, for typical experimental conditions used in microfluidic devices, the steady flow is highly three-dimensional with open spiraling vortical structures in the stagnant corner regions. The numerical simulations of the local kinematics and global pressure drop are in good agreement with experimental results. The device aspect ratio is shown to have a strong impact on the flow and consequently on the excess pressure drop, which is quantified in terms of the dimensionless Couette and Bagley correction factors. We suggest an approach for calculating the Bagley correction which may be especially appropriate for planar microchannels

A Quantum-mechanical Approach for Constrained Macromolecular Chains

Many approaches to three-dimensional constrained macromolecular chains at thermal equilibrium, at about room temperatures, are based upon constrained Classical Hamiltonian Dynamics (cCHDa). Quantum-mechanical approaches (QMa) have also been treated by different researchers for decades. QMa address a fundamental issue (constraints versus the uncertainty principle) and are versatile: they also yield classical descriptions (which may not coincide with those from cCHDa, although they may agree for certain relevant quantities). Open issues include whether QMa have enough practical consequences which differ from and/or improve those from cCHDa. We shall treat cCHDa briefly and deal with QMa, by outlining old approaches and focusing on recent ones.Comment: Expands review published in The European Physical Journal (Special Topics) Vol. 200, pp. 225-258 (2011