Micro-Pillar Mechanics

Abstract: Balloon-assisted enteroscopy procedures allow visualization and intervention in the small intestine. These balloons anchor an endoscope and/or overtube to the small intestine, allowing endoscopists to plicate the small intestine over the overtube. This procedure can extend examination deeper into the small intestine than the length of the endoscope would...

Abstract: This paper presents a computational study on the role of poroelasticity in gel friction. Motivated by recent experimental studies in the literature, we develop a plane strain finite element model to elucidate the contact mechanics between a circular indenter and a thick poroelastic substrate under both normal and shear...

Abstract: Understanding the contact and friction of soft materials is vital for a wide variety of engineering applications including soft sealants and medical devices such as catheters and stents. While the mechanisms of friction between stiff materials have been extensively studied, the mechanisms of friction between soft materials are much...

Abstract: Delamination of rigid objects from an elastic substrate with finite thickness is a fundamental problem underlying applications such as marine fouling release coatings or anti-icing coatings. Most existing theoretical studies assume that delamination is driven by forces normal to the substrate surface, while in practice the delamination force may...

Abstract: A representative volume element (RVE) model was developed to understand how the adhesion response between an effectively rigid substrate with micro-pillar arrays and a compliant substrate is affected by the spacing and aspect ratio of pillars. A number of verification and validation steps were taken to ensure the RVE...

Abstract: The work of adhesion and work of separation are characteristic properties of a contact interface that describe the amount of energy per unit area required to adhere or separate two contacting substrates, respectively. In this work, the authors present experimental and data analysis procedures that allow the contact interface...

Abstract: Colonoscopy is the leading preventative procedure for colorectal cancer. The traditional tool used for this procedure is an endoscope, which can cause patient discomfort, pain and fear of the procedure. There has been a movement to develop a robotic capsule colonoscope (RCC) in an attempt to mitigate these drawbacks...

Abstract: The objective of this work is to validate an experimental method and nondimensional model for characterizing the normal adhesive response between a polyvinyl chloride based synthetic biological tissue substrate and a flat, cylindrical probe with a smooth polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface. The adhesion response is a critical mobility design parameter...

Abstract: This study aims to produce experimental results for the coefficient of friction (COF) between the small bowel lumen and an edgeless, translating sled. Friction was measured as a function of sled speed under in situ and in vitro conditions. The results indicate that by eliminating edge effects, the COF...

Abstract: Robotic capsule endoscopy (RCE), where a robotically controlled capsule endoscope is used to navigate the gastrointestinal tract, is a developing technology currently hindered by mobility challenges within the small bowel. This research seeks to engage the frictional characterization of the small bowel with a formally designed experiment which samples...