Numerical methods for the estimation of effective diffusion coefficients and other parameters of controlled drug delivery systems

Abstract

In this thesis we develop various numerical tools for estimating unknown parameters that characterise the diffusion property of a polymeric drug; device in controlled drug delivery. Two types of fluid systems are considered in this work: the rotating fluid system and the flow-through fluid system. Based on the consideration of effects from the initial burst and boundary layer phenomena, three mathematical models are developed for the parameter estimation problem. They are the basic model (BM), initial burst model (IB) and boundary layer model (BL).