Honors Theses
Date of Award
2015
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Physics and Astronomy
First Advisor
Cecille Labuda
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
In an aqueous solution amphiphilic molecules can self-aggregate and form a wormlike micellar fluid. These non-Newtonian fluids have been studied in the context of diagnostic medical imaging due to the fact that the fluids have viscoelastic properties and can act as a nonperishable model for human tissue. They also display flow-birefringence, which is a property that allows for the analysis of shear wave propagation through the fluid. However, one issue encountered at lower micelle concentrations is the inability to see the emergent birefringence pattern that results from shear wave propagation. In this study Experiment 1 was an analysis of shear wave propagation in a 500/300 mM CTAB/NaSal micellar fluid, which was seeded with microspheres, at 23° C. The results were compared to data obtained via birefringence pattern analysis in order to verify the legitimacy of using microspheres to study shear wave propagation in wormlike micellar fluids. It was found that there was an agreement between the shear wave speed obtained from the suspended microsphere analysis, which was 733 ± 25.5 mm/s, and the speed obtained from the birefringence pattern analysis, which was 722 ± 33 mm/s. This result is promising for analyzing shear wave propagation at lower micelle concentrations with suspended microspheres. In Experiment 2, shear waves of frequency varying from 50 Hz to 140 Hz were analyzed in order to determine whether the micellar fluid displayed dispersive properties. The results suggest that within this frequency range there is no substantial evidence suggesting that the fluid is dispersive. Further analysis with a higher resolution lens is suggested to investigate this further.
Recommended Citation
Tierney, Connor M., "Visualization Techniques of Shear Wave Propagation in Wormlike Micellar Fluid" (2015). Honors Theses. 225.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/225
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