Abstract: Shear thickening fluid suspoemulsions are shown to exhibit unique material properties that have potential application in a broad range of fields of use. Suspoemulsions containing shear thickening fluids as immiscible blends exhibit a nontrivial shear thickening response for volume fractions as low as 10% of STF in the silicone emulsion. Measurements indicate that the system shows phase inversion and it is even possible to form materials with a cocontinuous microstructure with interesting, hysteretic, shear sensitive behavior. Novel STF containing composites with rubbers are formed by blending the shear thickening fluid within the rubber precursors and then adding the catalyzing agent. It was possible to contain STF in each of the silicones tested and the rubbers exhibited different behavior with incased STF. Shear thickening fluid was added to open cell polyurethane to create a Foam-STF composite which was found to exhibit an significant shear thickening response.

Abstract: The present invention relates to detection and maintenance of specific water levels. For example, a key component in the operation of almost all bioreactor landfills is the addition of water to maintain optimal moisture conditions. To determine how much water is needed and where to add it, in situ methods were generally required to measure water within solid waste. According to the present invention, transport behavior of at least two gas tracers within solid waste can advantageously be used to measure the fraction of the void space filled with water. One tracer is conservative and does not react with solids or liquids, while a second tracer partitions into the water and is separated from the conservative tracer during transport.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing optical components in a three-dimensional photonic crystal lattice. A first resist (9) is coated on a substrate (10) and exposed to an e-beam (11), to produce an imaged area (12). Another resist coating is applied to thicken the resist (13) and an interference exposure (15) is used to image the result. This is developed to form periodic voids (16), which may be filled with a materials having a high refractive index to form a pattern (18 and 12) when the resist (13) is removed.