The paper presents the impact of carrageenan addition on rheological characterisation of some hydrocolloid aqueous solutions during stirring with rotational speed changes. Carboxymethyl cellulose, guar gum and xanthan gum were used. Measurements were conducted in a vessel equipped with an anchor stirrer under rotational speed increase and decrease conditions, equivalent to a hysteresis loop rheological test. Rheological parameters were calculated using the power-law equation. It was found that a carrageenan addition generally causes a reduction of liquid apparent viscosity and time-dependent rheological behaviour intensification, with some exceptions.

The possibility of scaling viscoelastic properties of starch solutions in relation to biopolymer concentration was presented in this study. An application of this empirical method enabled to widen the observation horizon of viscoelastic properties. It was also determined that the scope of its applicability is limited by amylose content in the solution. In high amylose solutions, for which up to 40% (w/w) concentration was the highest one obtained, calibration caused the formation of master curve in the widest frequency range. Determined values of scaling coefficients aC changed exponentially in starch concentration function in the solution. For waxy starch solutions of maximum concentration equal to 20% (w/w), scaling did not significantly widen the observation window. Based on master curves constructed in such way, continuous relaxation spectra H(λ) were determined using Tikhonov regularisation method. Their structure indicates advantageous of viscous elements in the process of viscoelastic phenomena formation.

Measurements of dynamic surface tension were carried out in aqueous systems (water or 0.1 mM Triton X-100) comprising nanoparticles formed from chemically modified polyaldehyde dextran (PAD). The nanostructures, considered as potential drug carriers in aerosol therapy, were obtained from biocompatible polysaccharides by successive oxidation and reactive coiling in an aqueous solution. The dynamic surface tension of the samples was determined by the maximum bubble pressure (MBP) method and by the axisymmetric drop shape analysis (ADSA). Experiments with harmonic area perturbations were also carried out in order to determine surface dilatational viscoelasticity. PAD showed a remarkable surface activity. Ward-Tordai equation was used to determine the equilibrium surface tension and diffusion coefficient of PAD nanoparticles (D = 2.3×10-6 m2/s). In a mixture with Triton X-100, PAD particles showed co-adsorption and synergic effect in surface tension reduction at short times (below 10 s). Tested nanoparticles had impact on surface rheology in a mixed system with nonionic surfactant, suggesting their possible interactions with the lung surfactant system after inhalation. This preliminary investigation sets the methodological approach for further research related to the influence of inhaled PAD nanoparticles on the lung surfactant and mass transfer processes in the respiratory system.

In the paper, preliminary studies on formulation of a new constitutive equation of bone tissue are presented. A bone is modelled as a viscoelastic material. Thus, not only are elastic properties of the bone taken into account, but also both short-term and long-term viscoelastic properties are considered. A potential function is assumed for the bone, constant identification on the basis of experimental stress-strain curve fitting is completed and a preliminary constitutive equation is formulated. The experiments consisted of compressive tests performed on a cuboids-like bone sample of the following dimensions: 10x5x7.52 mm. The specimen was compressed along the highest dimension at the strain rates 0.016 s to the -1 and 0.00016 s to the -1. In addition to this, stress relaxation test was performed to identify long-term viscoelastic constants of bone. In the experiments, only displacement in the load direction was measured. The bone sample was extracted from a bovine femur. The form of the proposed potential function is such that it models a bone as a transversely isotropic material. For the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the bone is incompressible. After the material constant identification the strain energy function proved to be adequate to describe bone behaviour under compressive load. Due to the fact that the function is convex, the results of the studies can be utilised in modelling of bone tissue in finite element analyses of an implant-bone system. Such analyses are very helpful in the process of a new prosthesis design as one can preoperatively verify the construction of the new implant and optimise its shape.

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the mechanical properties around an underground gas storage cavern in bedded salt rock. Firstly, considering the characteristics of the salt rock formation in China, the mechanical model was simplified into a hollow cylinder, which containing non-salt interlayer. In terms of elastic theory, Love displacement function was developed, and the elastic general solution of stress and deformation components were obtained after determining the undetermined coefficients. Under the same condition, numerical simulation was carried out. The validity of the elastic general solution is verified by comparing to numerical simulation results. Furthermore, Based on the feasible general elastic solution, viscoelastic solution was obtained through Laplace transformation and inverse Laplace transform, which could provide reference for the study on the stability and tightness of underground gas storage carven during operation to some extent.