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Stretching and polarizing a dielectric gel immersed in a solvent

      This paper studies a gel formed by a network of cross-linked polymers and a species of mobile molecules. The gel is taken to be a dielectric, in which both the polymers and the mobile molecules...

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A theory of coupled diffusion and large deformation in polymeric gels

   A large quantity of small molecules may migrate into a network of long polymers, causing the network to swell, forming an aggregate known as a polymeric gel.  This paper formulates a theory of the...

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Mechanics of Soft Active Materials (SAMs)

I have recently given seminars on Mechanics of Soft Active Materials (SAMs) at several universities, using this set of slides (pdf, 1.4 MB).  I also attach the slides as ppt; please feel free to use...

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Drying-induced bifurcation in a hydrogel-actuated nanostructure

Hydrogels have enormous potential for making adaptive structures in response to diverse stimuli.  In a structure demonstrated recently, for example, nanoscale rods of silicon were embedded vertically...

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Inhomogeneous and anisotropic equilibrium state of a swollen hydrogel...

A polymer network can imbibe water from environment and swell to an equilibrium state. If the equilibrium is reached when the network is subject to external mechanical constraint, the deformation of...

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Large deformation and instability in gels

I'm attaching slides of a talk that I gave yesterday at the Schlumberger-Doll Research Center.  In preparing the talk, I made liberal use of slides prepared by Wei Hong for his own presentations.  The...

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Inhomogeneous swelling of a gel in equilibrium with a solvent and mechanical...

A network of polymers can imbibe a large quantity of a solvent and swell, resulting in a gel.  The swelling process can be markedly influenced by a mechanical load and geometric constraint.  When the...

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Large deformation and electrochemistry of polyelectrolyte gels

Immersed in an ionic solution, a network of polyelectrolyte polymers imbibes the solution and swells, resulting in a polyelectrolyte gel. The swelling is reversible, and is regulated by ionic...

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Formation of creases on the surfaces of elastomers and gels

When a block of an elastomer is bent, the compressed surface may form a crease. This paper analyzes the critical condition for creasing by comparing the elastic energy in a creased body and that in a...

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A theory of constrained swelling of a pH-sensitive hydrogel

Many engineering devices and natural phenomena involve gels that swell under the constraint of hard materials. The constraint causes a field of stress in a gel, and often makes the swelling...

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Using indentation to characterize the poroelasticity of gels

When an indenter is pressed into a gel to a fixed depth, the solvent in the gel migrates, and the force on the indenter relaxes. Within the theory of poroelasticity, the force relaxation curves for...

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Indentation of polydimethylsiloxane submerged in organic solvents

This paper uses a method based on indentation to characterize a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer submerged in an organic solvent (decane, heptane, pentane, or cyclohexane).  An indenter is pressed...

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Poroelasticity of a covalently crosslinked alginate hydrogel under compression

This paper studies the poroelastic behavior of an alginate hydrogel by a combination of theory and experiment. The gel—covalently crosslinked, submerged in water and fully swollen—is suddenly...

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A Theory of Ionic Polymer Conductor Network Composite

Ionic polymer conductor network composite (IPCNC) is a mixed conductor consisting of a network of loaded ionomer and another network of metallic particles. It is known that the microstructure of the...

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Indentation: a simple, nondestructive method for characterizing the...

We use instrumented indentation to characterize the mechanical and transport behavior of a pH-sensitive hydrogel in various aqueous buffer solutions. In the measurement an indenter is pressed to a...

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Poroelastic relaxation indentation of thin layers of gels

We develop a method of poroelastic relaxation indentation (PRI) to characterize thin layers of gels.  The solution to the time-dependent boundary-value problem is obtained in a remarkably simple form,...

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Symposium on Soft Materials and Structures at 49th SES Meeting (Abstract...

Dear Colleagues, We would like to to draw your attention to the Symposium on **Soft Materials and Structures** to take place at the upcoming 49th Meeting of the Society of Engineering Sciences (SES) at...

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viscoelasticity and poroelasticity in elastomeric gels

An elastomeric gel is a mixture of a polymer network and a solvent. In response to changes in mechanical forces and in the chemical potential of the solvent in the environment, the gel evolves by two...

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Journal Club Theme of September 2012: Fracture of polymeric gels

A polymeric gel consists of a polymer network swollen by small solvent molecules. It could be synthesized from a monomer solution through gelation or from a dry elastomer directly through swelling....

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