Poromechanical modeling of fluid penetration in chemo-responsive gels: Parameter optimization and applications

Abstract

As an important category of smart materials, stimuli-responsive hydrogels are highly concerned due to their extensive application possibilities and their outstanding biocompatibilities. The ability of responsive hydrogels about significant volume change by external stimuli inspires the design of electronic devices, for example, as sensors and actuators. The modeling of the hydrogel behavior enables the optimization of corresponding applications. In the present research, on the basis of the experimentally determined material parameters, a chemo-poromechanical model was implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics ® to investigate the constricted swelling of hydrogels. The swelling kinetics affected by the diffusion coefficient is discussed in detail with numerical simulations.