Kumbakonam R. Rajagopal

Bio: Kumbakonam R. Rajagopal is an academic researcher from Texas A&M University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Constitutive equation & Viscoelasticity. The author has an hindex of 77, co-authored 659 publications receiving 23443 citations. Previous affiliations of Kumbakonam R. Rajagopal include Kent State University & University of Wisconsin-Madison.

On Fully Developed Flows of Fluids with a Pressure Dependent Viscosity in a Pipe

Abstract: Stokes recognized that the viscosity of a fluid can depend on the normal stress and that in certain flows such as flows in a pipe or in channels under normal conditions, this dependence can be neglected. However, there are many other flows, which have technological significance, where the dependence of the viscosity on the pressure cannot be neglected. Numerous experimental studies have unequivocally shown that the viscosity depends on the pressure, and that this dependence can be quite strong, depending on the flow conditions. However, there have been few analytical studies that address the flows of such fluids despite their relevance to technological applications such as elastohydrodynamics. Here, we study the flow of such fluids in a pipe under sufficiently high pressures wherein the viscosity depends on the pressure, and establish an explicit exact solution for the problem. Unlike the classical Navier-Stokes solution, we find the solutions can exhibit a structure that varies all the way from a plug-like flow to a sharp profile that is essentially two intersecting lines (like a rotated V). We also show that unlike in the case of a Navier-Stokes fluid, the pressure depends both on the radial and the axial coordinates of the pipe, logarithmically in the radial coordinate and exponentially in the axial coordinate. Exact solutions such as those established in this paper serve a dual purpose, not only do they offer solutions that are transparent and provide the solution to a specific but simple boundary value problems, but they can be used also to test complex numerical schemes used to study technologically significant problems.

Nonlinear elasticity with limiting small strain for cracks subject to non-penetration.

Abstract: A major drawback of the study of cracks within the context of the linearized theory of elasticity is the inconsistency that one obtains with regard to the strain at a crack tip, namely it becoming infinite. In this paper we consider the problem within the context of an elastic body that exhibits limiting small strain wherein we are not faced with such an inconsistency. We introduce the concept of a non-smooth viscosity solution which is described by generalized variational inequalities and coincides with the weak solution in the smooth case. The well-posedness is proved by the construction of an approximation problem using elliptic regularization and penalization techniques.

A thermodynamic framework for a mixture of two liquids

Abstract: In this study, we extend a thermodynamic framework that has been used with some success for describing the response of a variety of single constituent continua. Using the thermodynamic framework, we obtain a model for the mixture of two compressible fluids that has a much simpler structure than the model obtained earlier within the context of mixture theory. We also investigate the response of a mixture of two fluids that is constrained to have a constant volume, using the same thermodynamic framework.

A promising approach for modeling biological fibers

Abstract: The final-to-initial stiffness ratio is very large (>100) for many biological fibers, and as such, these materials have been modeled as being strain limiting. We propose an unconventional structure for a stored energy function that leads to a constitutive relation capable of describing this observed strain-limiting behavior. The model can attain infinite stress at a finite strain while storing a finite amount of internal energy. Many biological fibers have a mechanical response that starts out as being compliant and nonlinear, and transitions into one that is stiff and linear. We present a biological fiber model comprised of a strain-limiting fiber (strain being attributed to molecular reconfiguration) loaded in conjunction with a Hookean fiber (strain being attributed to molecular stretch). The model’s parameters are physical, intuitive and readily extracted from a stress/strain curve. Chordae tendineae data are used to demonstrate the efficacy of the model.

A new constitutive framework for arterial wall mechanics and a comparative study of material models

Abstract: In this paper we develop a new constitutive law for the description of the (passive) mechanical response of arterial tissue. The artery is modeled as a thick-walled nonlinearly elastic circular cylindrical tube consisting of two layers corresponding to the media and adventitia (the solid mechanically relevant layers in healthy tissue). Each layer is treated as a fiber-reinforced material with the fibers corresponding to the collagenous component of the material and symmetrically disposed with respect to the cylinder axis. The resulting constitutive law is orthotropic in each layer. Fiber orientations obtained from a statistical analysis of histological sections from each arterial layer are used. A specific form of the law, which requires only three material parameters for each layer, is used to study the response of an artery under combined axial extension, inflation and torsion. The characteristic and very important residual stress in an artery in vitro is accounted for by assuming that the natural (unstressed and unstrained) configuration of the material corresponds to an open sector of a tube, which is then closed by an initial bending to form a load-free, but stressed, circular cylindrical configuration prior to application of the extension, inflation and torsion. The effect of residual stress on the stress distribution through the deformed arterial wall in the physiological state is examined. The model is fitted to available data on arteries and its predictions are assessed for the considered combined loadings. It is explained how the new model is designed to avoid certain mechanical, mathematical and computational deficiencies evident in currently available phenomenological models. A critical review of these models is provided by way of background to the development of the new model.

The physics of debris flows

Abstract: Recent advances in theory and experimen- tation motivate a thorough reassessment of the physics of debris flows. Analyses of flows of dry, granular solids and solid-fluid mixtures provide a foundation for a com- prehensive debris flow theory, and experiments provide data that reveal the strengths and limitations of theoret- ical models. Both debris flow materials and dry granular materials can sustain shear stresses while remaining stat- ic; both can deform in a slow, tranquil mode character- ized by enduring, frictional grain contacts; and both can flow in a more rapid, agitated mode characterized by brief, inelastic grain collisions. In debris flows, however, pore fluid that is highly viscous and nearly incompress- ible, composed of water with suspended silt and clay, can strongly mediate intergranular friction and collisions. Grain friction, grain collisions, and viscous fluid flow may transfer significant momentum simultaneously. Both the vibrational kinetic energy of solid grains (mea- sured by a quantity termed the granular temperature) and the pressure of the intervening pore fluid facilitate motion of grains past one another, thereby enhancing debris flow mobility. Granular temperature arises from conversion of flow translational energy to grain vibra- tional energy, a process that depends on shear rates, grain properties, boundary conditions, and the ambient fluid viscosity and pressure. Pore fluid pressures that exceed static equilibrium pressures result from local or global debris contraction. Like larger, natural debris flows, experimental debris flows of ;10 m 3 of poorly sorted, water-saturated sediment invariably move as an unsteady surge or series of surges. Measurements at the base of experimental flows show that coarse-grained surge fronts have little or no pore fluid pressure. In contrast, finer-grained, thoroughly saturated debris be- hind surge fronts is nearly liquefied by high pore pres- sure, which persists owing to the great compressibility and moderate permeability of the debris. Realistic mod- els of debris flows therefore require equations that sim- ulate inertial motion of surges in which high-resistance fronts dominated by solid forces impede the motion of low-resistance tails more strongly influenced by fluid forces. Furthermore, because debris flows characteristi- cally originate as nearly rigid sediment masses, trans- form at least partly to liquefied flows, and then trans- form again to nearly rigid deposits, acceptable models must simulate an evolution of material behavior without invoking preternatural changes in material properties. A simple model that satisfies most of these criteria uses depth-averaged equations of motion patterned after those of the Savage-Hutter theory for gravity-driven flow of dry granular masses but generalized to include the effects of viscous pore fluid with varying pressure. These equations can describe a spectrum of debris flow behav- iors intermediate between those of wet rock avalanches and sediment-laden water floods. With appropriate pore pressure distributions the equations yield numerical so- lutions that successfully predict unsteady, nonuniform motion of experimental debris flows.

Solving Ordinary Differential Equations

Abstract: Initial-value ordinary differential equation solution via variable order Adams method (SIVA/DIVA) package is collection of subroutines for solution of nonstiff ordinary differential equations. There are versions for single-precision and double-precision arithmetic. Requires fewer evaluations of derivatives than other variable-order Adams predictor/ corrector methods. Option for direct integration of second-order equations makes integration of trajectory problems significantly more efficient. Written in FORTRAN 77.

Hyperelastic modelling of arterial layers with distributed collagen fibre orientations

Abstract: Constitutive relations are fundamental to the solution of problems in continuum mechanics, and are required in the study of, for example, mechanically dominated clinical interventions involving soft biological tissues. Structural continuum constitutive models of arterial layers integrate information about the tissue morphology and therefore allow investigation of the interrelation between structure and function in response to mechanical loading. Collagen fibres are key ingredients in the structure of arteries. In the media (the middle layer of the artery wall) they are arranged in two helically distributed families with a small pitch and very little dispersion in their orientation (i.e. they are aligned quite close to the circumferential direction). By contrast, in the adventitial and intimal layers, the orientation of the collagen fibres is dispersed, as shown by polarized light microscopy of stained arterial tissue. As a result, continuum models that do not account for the dispersion are not able to capture accurately the stress–strain response of these layers. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to develop a structural continuum framework that is able to represent the dispersion of the collagen fibre orientation. This then allows the development of a new hyperelastic free-energy function that is particularly suited for representing the anisotropic elastic properties of adventitial and intimal layers of arterial walls, and is a generalization of the fibre-reinforced structural model introduced by Holzapfel & Gasser (Holzapfel & Gasser 2001 Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng. 190, 4379–4403) and Holzapfel et al. (Holzapfel et al. 2000 J. Elast. 61, 1–48). The model incorporates an additional scalar structure parameter that characterizes the dispersed collagen orientation. An efficient finite element implementation of the model is then presented and numerical examples show that the dispersion of the orientation of collagen fibres in the adventitia of human iliac arteries has a significant effect on their mechanical response.