• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.165-173
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• 2008

Multiple particle tracking microrheology is used to characterize the viscoelastic properties of biomaterial and synthetic polymer gels near the liquid-solid transition. Probe particles are dispersed in the gel precursors, and their dynamics are measured as a function of the extent of reaction during gel formation. We interpret the dynamics using the generalized Stokes-Einstein relationship (GSER), using a form of the GSER that emphasizes the relationship between the probe particle mean-squared displacement and the material creep compliance. We show that long-standing concepts in gel bulk rheology are applicable to microrheological data, including time-cure superposition to identify the gel point and critical scaling exponents, and the power-law behavior of incipient network's viscoelastic response. These experiments provide valuable insight into the rheology, structure, and kinetics of gelling materials, and are especially powerful for studying the weak incipient networks of dilute gelators, as well as scarce materials, due to the small sample size requirements and rapid data acquisition.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4D
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• pp.387-393
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• 2010

This paper studies static crack growth of asphalt pavement using the extended finite element method (XFEM). To consider nonlinear characteristics of asphalt concrete, a viscoelastic constitutive equation using the Maxwell chain is used. And a linear cohesive crack model is used to regularize the crack. Instead of constructing the viscoelastic constitutive law from the Prony approximation of compliance and retardation time measured experimentally, we use a smooth log-power function which optimally fits experimental data and is infinitely differentiable. The partial moduli of the Maxwell chain from the log-power function make analysis easy because they change more smoothly in a more stable way than the ordinary method such as the least square method. Using the developed method, we can simulates the static crack growth test results satisfactorily.