Pirouz Kavehpour

Incorporation of Active DNA/Cationic Polymer Polyplexes into Hydrogel Scaffolds

The effective and sustained delivery of DNA and siRNAs locally would increase the applicability of gene therapy in tissue regeneration and cancer therapy. One promising approach is to use hydrogel scaffolds to encapsulate and deliver nucleotides in the form of nanoparticles to the disease sites. However, this approach is currently limited by the inability to load concentrated and active gene delivery nanoparticles into the hydrogels due to the severe nanoparticle aggregation during the loading process. Here, we present a process to load concentrated and un-aggregated non-viral gene delivery nanoparticles, using DNA/polyethylene imine (PEI) polyplexes as an example, into neutral polyethylene glycol (PEG), negatively charged hyaluronic acid (HA) and protein fibrin hydrogels crosslinked through various chemistries. The encapsulated polyplexes are highly active both in vitro and in vivo. We believe this process will significantly advance the applications of hydrogel scaffold mediated non-viral gene delivery in tissue regeneration and cancer therapy.

A material point method for viscoelastic fluids, foams and sponges

We present a new Material Point Method (MPM) for simulating viscoelastic fluids, foams and sponges. We design our discretization from the upper convected derivative terms in the evolution of the left Cauchy-Green elastic strain tensor. We combine this with an Oldroyd-B model for plastic flow in a complex viscoelastic fluid. While the Oldroyd-B model is traditionally used for viscoelastic fluids, we show that its interpretation as a plastic flow naturally allows us to simulate a wide range of complex material behaviors. In order to do this, we provide a modification to the traditional Oldroyd-B model that guarantees volume preserving plastic flows. Our plasticity model is remarkably simple (foregoing the need for the singular value decomposition (SVD) of stresses or strains). Lastly, we show that implicit time stepping can be achieved in a manner similar to [Stomakhin et al. 2013] and that this allows for high resolution simulations at practical simulation times.

A micro extensional filament rheometer enabled by EWOD

We present a miniature system for generating and measuring liquid microfilaments for capillary breakup rheometry. The key component is a chip that splits samples in open air, creating shear-free liquid threads that can be measured by optical micrometry. For testing polar samples, electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) is used to induce spreading, which causes necking and capillary instability-driven breakup. Low-surface-tension samples spread spontaneously, and thus reach instability without EWOD. We use LED optical micrometry to measure inelastic and elastic microfilaments, and the results are consistent with capillary breakup theory and comparable to those obtained by established experimental methods.

A Dimensionless Model for Transient Turbulent Natural Convection in Isochoric Vertical Thermal Energy Storage Tubes

Author(s): Lakeh, Reza Baghaei; Wirz, Richard E; Kavehpour, Pirouz; Lavine, Adrienne S | Abstract: In this study, turbulent natural convection heat transfer during the charge cycle of an isochoric vertically oriented thermal energy storage (TES) tube is studied computationally and analytically. The storage fluids considered in this study (supercritical CO2 and liquid toluene) cover a wide range of Rayleigh numbers. The volume of the storage tube is constant and the thermal storage happens in an isochoric process. A computational model was utilized to study turbulent natural convection during the charge cycle. The computational results were further utilized to develop a conceptual and dimensionless model that views the thermal storage process as a hot boundary layer that rises along the tube wall and falls in the center to replace the cold fluid in the core. The dimensionless model predicts that the dimensionless mean temperature of the storage fluid and average Nusselt number of natural convection are functions of L/D ratio, Rayleigh number, and Fourier number that are combined to form a buoyancy-Fourier number.