Dynamics of water transport in swelling membranes

Abstract

The time course of swelling of a membrane during water imbibition is explained using time-independent properties of the membrane and an equation developed from physicochemical considerations. The corneal stroma is an example of a membrane for which sufficient experimental data are available to compare theory and experiment. When account is taken of the uncertainties in both theory and experimental data, there is good agreement between the predicted and observed time course of membrane swelling.