In this paper, the effect of thermomechanical loading on the behavior of deflection-based harvested energies from a shape memory polymer system is experimentally investigated. Samples are created with honeycomb cells from poly-lactic acid using additive manufacturing techniques. The shape memory effect in shape recovery and force recovery paths are studied under thermomechanical tests in bendin...

A deep inspiration (DI) temporarily relaxes agonist-constricted airways in normal subjects, but in asthma airways are refractory and may rapidly renarrow, possibly due to changes in the structure and function of airway smooth muscle (ASM). Chronic largely uniaxial cyclic strain of ASM cells in culture causes several structural and functional changes in ASM similar to that in asthma, including i...

The compressive creep and recovery of foam earplugs was studied at various applied stresses leading to different fi nal creep strains. Deformation was determined from digital videos of the earplugs via image processing software. Creep could not be modeled by a single exponential in time; creep approximated a power law in time. Nonlinear viscoelasticity was observed: creep compliance depends on ...

BACKGROUND The extent of viable myocardial tissue is recognized as a major determinant of recovery of left ventricular (LV) function after myocardial infarction. In the current study, the role of global LV strain assessed with novel automated function imaging (AFI) to predict functional recovery after acute infarction was evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 147 patients (mean age, 61+/-...

We present a constitutive model capturing some of the experimentally observed features of soft biological tissues: nonlinear viscoelasticity, nonlinear elastic anisotropy, and nonlinear viscous anisotropy. For this model we derive the equation governing rectilinear shear motion in the plane of the fiber reinforcement; it is a nonlinear partial differential equation for the shear strain. Special...

In nanocrystalline metals, lack of intragranular dislocation sources leads to plastic deformation mechanisms that substantially differ from those in coarse-grained metals. However, irrespective of grain size, plastic deformation is considered irrecoverable. We show experimentally that plastically deformed nanocrystalline aluminum and gold films with grain sizes of 65 nanometers and 50 nanometer...

The hot deformation behavior of a typical martensitic stainless steel containing 2.1% Ni was investigated by means of the compression test in the strain rate range of 0.001-1 s-1 and temperature range of 950-1150 °C. The flow behavior of the steel was evaluated using the flow stress curves and flow softening map and by microstructural investigation. Taking into account of the strain effect on t...

AIMS To assess whether strain rate imaging (SRI) can serve to evaluate myocardial viability in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS AND RESULTS In 23 patients with ACS, we measured longitudinal tissue Doppler strain and strain rate values from left ventricular basal, mid, and apical segments (n = 414). These segments were grouped according to their acute end-systolic strain va...