An Overview of Models on Mechanics of Growth in Porous Media

The Faculty of Informatics is pleased to announce a seminar given by Alfio Grillo

DATE: Friday, November 11th, 2011
PLACE: USI Università della Svizzera italiana, room SI-015, Informatics building (Via G. Buffi 13)
TIME: 11.30

ABSTRACT:
We represent a biological tissue by a multi-constituent, fiber-reinforced material, in which we consider two phases: uid, and a fiber-reinforced solid. Among the various processes that may occur in such a system, we study growth, mass transfer, and remodeling. To us, mass transfer is the reciprocal exchange of constituents between the phases, growth is the variation of mass of the system in response to interactions with the surrounding environment, and remodeling is the evolution of its internal structure. We embrace the theory according to which these events, which lead to a structural reorganization of the system and anelastic deformations, require the introduction of balance laws, which complete the physical picture offered  by the standard ones. The former are said to be non-standard. Our purposes are to determine the rates of anelastic deformation related to mass transfer and growth, and to study fiber reorientation in the case of a statistical distribution of fibers. In particular, we discuss the use of the non-standard balance laws in modeling transfer of mass, and compare our results with a formulation in which such balance laws are not introduced.

BIO:
Scientific Career
Born in Catania, Italy, on the 13th of September 1977
2002: Laurea in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Catania, Italy.
2006: Ph.D. in Physical Engineering at the University of Catania, Italy.
2006-2007: Post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Physical and Chemical Methodologies for Engineering of the University of Catania, Italy (Prof. G. Giaquinta).
2007-2008: Contract researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center of Scientific Computing of the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelgerg, Germany (Prof. Gabriel Wittum).
2008 - present: Contract researcher at the Goethe Center for Scientific Computing of the Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany (Prof. GabrielWittum).
Scientific Interests
Continuum Mechanics
1. Theory of Mixtures: Thermo-mechanic modelling of multiphasic materials.
2. Theory of Porous Media: Upscaling and homogenization techniques in porous media with applications to growth mechanics and drug delivery in skin layers.
3. Soft Tissue Biomechanics: Mutiscale modelling of growth and adaptation of biological tissues.
Environmental Science
1. Theory of Thermo diffusion: Models and simulations of thermo diffusion in porous media.£
2. Density-driven flow: Models and simulations of thermohaline-driven flow in hydrogeological media.
3. Fractured Media: Models of flow and transport in fractured porous media.
Other scientific interests: Fractional Calculus, Differential Geometry, Field Theory, Biophysics (solitons in molecular systems).
Other scientific interestes: Fractional Calculus, Differential Geometry, Field Theory, Biophysics (solitons in molecular systems).

HOST: Prof. Rolf Krause