We applied the pseudostrain energy function of Humphrey et al. [J. biomech. Engng 112, 333-346 (1990a, b)] to characterize the passive biaxial mechanical properties of the right ventricle free wall myocardium [Sacks and Chuong, J. biomech. Engng 115,202-205 (1993)]. The myocardium was assumed to be incompressible, pseudoelastic, and transversely isotropic, with transmural variations in fiber or...

Two types of tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (TZP), a ceria-stabilized TZP/Al2O3 nanocomposite (CZA) and a conventional yttria-stabilized TZP (Y-TZP), were sandblasted with 70-microm alumina and 125-microm SiC powders, then partially annealed at 500-1200 degrees C for five minutes. Monoclinic ZrO2 content was determined by X-ray diffractometry and Raman spectroscopy. Biaxial flexure test was c...

Processing effects on the dielectric properties of sol–gel-derived PbZrO3–PbTiO3 (PZT) films integrated onto Pt/Ti/SiO2//Si substrates are reported. Sol–gel synthesis and deposition conditions were designed to produce films of varying thickness (95–500 nm) with consistent chemical composition (Pb (Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3), phase content (perovskite), grain size (B110 nm), crystallographic orientation (...

We discuss the reorientation of a cylindrically symmetric probe in a biaxial orthorombic medium, such as a biaxial nematic. We write down and solve for the first time the rotational diffusion equation for a rod-like or disc-like uniaxial probe reorienting in a medium of biaxial symmetry. We calculate first and second rank correlation functions both in the uniaxial and biaxial phase, giving the ...