Covering the energy demand by using environmentally friendly resources is a major challenge of the present. Gas turbines take a central role in accomplishing this objective, as they allow for bridging periods of a deficit in available renewable energy sources. The application of…
There is a need for tissue engineers to recreate extracellular matrix that mimics the highly organized extracellular structures as seen in vivo. In a previous study in the extracellular matrix engineering research laboratory (EMERL), a micromechanical system was used to create s…
This thesis examines selected issues related to the performance of earthfill embankments constructed on soft clay foundations. The primary objectives of the thesis are: to extend an existing elastic-viscoplastic (EVP) constitutive model to describe the influence of micro-structu…
The viscosity of the QGP is a presently hotly debated subject. Since its computation from first principles is difficult, it is desirable to try to extract it from experimental data. Viscous hydrodynamics provides a tool that can attack this problem and which may work in regions …
Accurate knowledge of the multicomponent phase behavior of carbon dioxide (CO2) with hydrocarbon fluids is needed in the design, operation and development of carbon dioxide-based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. In particular, understanding the phase behavior of CO2 + n-e…
Highly viscous substances, such as feces, produce significant heat when layer deformation occurs. We describe the use of viscous heating to destroy disease-causing microorganisms and whipworms in feces using a small amount of power. The laboratory-scale unit has a rotating centr…
There is evidence that a stably stratified layer of fluid, which is not penetrated by the convective flow of fluid in the bulk of the outer core, is located below the Core-Mantle Boundary (CMB). The question considered in this thesis is whether such a layer also affects the core…
In-situ foaming the injection gas for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) can improve the volumetric sweep efficiency of the gas phase and reduce gas channeling and viscous fingering in the oil reservoirs with permeability contrast. However, the success of foam displacement in porous me…
Glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) is the ongoing response of the viscoelastic solid Earth, oceans and the gravitational field to the previous burden of the ice loads. The Earth’s surface was once covered with massive ice sheets, and melting of these ice sheets is still reshapin…
Dynamic windows enable electronic control of light and heat flow and demonstrate potential for increased energy efficiency in buildings and improved well-being for the people inside them. Despite four decades of research and development, the traditional approaches to dynamic win…
Plate tectonics convectively cools the Earth at present. Debate remains in defining plate tectonics as a dynamic system. What is the primary resistor to plate motions: plates, mantle viscosity, some mixture of the two? Here I shed some light on this debate. First, I quantify the…