Development of Particle Image Velocimetry for In Vitro Studies of Arterial

This thesis would not have been possible without the valuable contributions and support I received from numerous people during the past three years. In particular I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Mark Jermy for his guidance and support for this project. His constant commitment and valu-able advice have been a great source of encouragement and inspiration to me throughout the time. I would also like to thank my co-supervisor Prof. Tim David for his contributions and expertise and without whom I would never have entered the fascinating field of biomechanical engineering. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Julio Soria from Monash University for his unconditional support and the interesting discussions and valuable advice. Thank you for hosting me in Melbourne. Other people directly involved in this project included Dr. Steven Moore, who has provided invaluable discussions and expertise in medical imaging, Dr. Chuong Nguyen and Callum Atkinson with whom I have collaborated on vari-ous aspect and Miharu Yamamoto who conducted the numerical simulations. Also, this work would have not been possible without the technical staff in the Mechanical Engineering workshop, who have spent countless hours in man-ufacturing experimental equipment. In particular, I would like to thank Eric Cox and Julian Phillips for their support. The financial support for living, equipment and travel expenses I received by the University of Canterbury International doctoral scholarship, the New v