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.

Pulsatile Flow of a Chemically-Reacting Nonlinear Fluid

Abstract: Many complex biological systems such as blood and polymeric materials can at times be approximated as single constituent homogeneous fluids whose properties can change due to the chemical reactions that take place. For instance, the viscosity of such fluids could change both due to the chemical reactions and the flow. Here, we investigate the pulsatile flow of a chemically-reacting fluid whose viscosity depends on the concentration of a species (constituent) that is governed by a convection-reaction-diffusion equation and the velocity gradient, which can thicken or thin the fluid. We study the competition between the chemical reaction and the kinematics in determining the response of the fluid.

On constitutive equations for electrorheological materials

Abstract: Constitutive equations for electrorheological (ER) fluids have been based on experimental results for steady shearing flows and constant electric fields. The fluids have been modeled as being rigid until a yield stress is reached. Additional stress is then proportional to the shear rate. Recent experimental results indicate that ER materials have a regime of solid-like response when deformed from a rest state. They behave in a viscoelastic-like manner under sinusoidal shearing and exhibit time-dependent response under sudden changes in shear rate or electric field. In this work, a constitutive theory for ER materials is presented which accounts for these recent experimental observations. The stress is given by a functional of the deformation gradient history and the electric field vector. Using the methods of continuum mechanics, a general three-dimensional constitutive equation is obtained. A sample constitutive equation is introduced which is then used to determine the response of an ER material for different shear histories. The calculated shear response is shown to be qualitatively similar to that observed experimentally.

On the decay of vortices in a second grade fluid

Abstract: G. I. Taylor [ 1 ] showed that the flow representing a double array of vortices which has the same periodicity in both the x and y directions is a solution to the equations of motion in two dimensions of a linearly viscous fluid. It was shown in [2] that such a result is also true for 'second order' fluids if time scale which characterizes the memory of the fluid and the size of the vortices satisfy certain apriori restrictions. In this note we show that the results established by Taylor [1] for the linearly viscous fluid are uncondi t ional ly true, irrespective of the time scale which characterizes the fluid or the size of the vortices in the case of incompressible second grade fluids provided they are thermodynamically compatible. Also, in this analysis we investigate the relationship between the rate of decay of the vortices, and the periodicity of the vortices. It is found that if the periodicity is increased in the x or y directions, the vortices decay faster. It is also found, as is to be expected, that the vortices decay faster as the coefficient of viscosity # increases, while the decay is slower if the normal stress moduli oq is larger. The Cauchy stress T in an incompressible second grade fluid is assumed to be related to the fluid motion in the following manner [3 ]

Biological Growth and Remodeling: A Uniaxial Example with Possible Application to Tendons and Ligaments

Abstract: Recent discoveries in molecular and cell biology reveal that many cell types sense and respond (via altered gene expression) to changes in their mechanical environment. Such mechanotransduction mechanisms are responsible for many changes in structure and function, including the growth and remodeling process. To understand better, and ultimately to use (e.g., in tissue engineering), biological growth and remodeling, there is a need for mathematical models that have predictive and not just descriptive capability. In contrast to prior models based on reaction-diffusion equations or the concept of volumetric growth, we examine here a newly proposed constrained mixture model for growth and remodeling. Specifically, we use this new model to present illustrative computations in a representative, transversely-isotropic soft tissue subjected to homogeneous deformations under uniaxial loading. Consequences of various assumptions for the kinetics of mass production and removal are discussed, as are open problems in this important area of biomechanics.

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.