Obstructed swelling and fracture of hydrogels
When swelling hydrogels encounter obstacles, they either expand around the obstacles or fracture, depending on obstacle geometry.
Chemistry↗
Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Datta, Sujit S..
When swelling hydrogels encounter obstacles, they either expand around the obstacles or fracture, depending on obstacle geometry.
Using our open-source programming environment Morpho, an energy-optimization method is developed to compute equilibrium shapes of an arbitrarily confined swollen hydrogel. The internal strains and contact forces are measured, probing its mechanics.