Large Swelling in Polymer Hydrogels

Application ID: 111591


Polymer hydrogels consist of a crosslinked network of long-chained polymers that has imbibed a large number of solvent molecules. Such materials are used in many biomedical applications, such as targeted drug delivery, tissue engineering, and stimuli-sensitive actuators.

This benchmark model demonstrates how to simulate large swelling in polymer hydrogels by implementing a coupled field theory of large deformation and solvent diffusion based on the work by Hong, Zhao, Zhou, and Suo, JMPS 56:1779-1793 (2008).

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: