\startabstractpage {A CONTINUUM THEORY OF MULTIPHASE MIXTURES FOR
  MODELLING BIOLOGICAL GROWTH} {Harish Narayanan} {Chair: Krishnakumar
  R. Garikipati}

This dissertation presents a continuum treatment of growth in
biological tissue developed within the context of modern mixture
theory. The crux of this work is a careful examination of the
assumptions underlying continuum thermodynamics under the condition
that multiple interacting species occupy a region of Euclidean space
simultaneously. The formal axiomatic treatment presented derives from
these assumptions, and provides insight into the sequence of
interactions among tissue mechanics, mass transport and biochemical
reactions. A computational formulation built upon the theory is used
to solve a broad class of numerical examples demonstrating several
biophysical aspects of tissue growth.

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