Modeling for analysis of the effect of Young's modulus on soft active hydrogels subject to pH stimulus

• Published in: Smart materials and structures Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 045010 - 045010 (10)
• Main Authors: Li, Hua, Yew, Yong Kin, Ng, Teng Yong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.04.2009; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Chemistry; Colloidal gels. Colloidal sols; Colloidal state and disperse state; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); General and physical chemistry; Physics; Solid mechanics; Static elasticity (thermoelasticity...); Structural and continuum mechanics; Elastic constant; Electric potential; High strain; Deformation modulus; Elasticity; Physical gel; Experimental study; Equilibrium equation; Modeling; Young modulus; Chemical reaction; Meshless method; Hydrogel; Non linear effect; Newton method; Electromechanical properties
• ISSN: 0964-1726; 1361-665X
• DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/18/4/045010

Modeling is conducted in this paper for analysis of the influence of Young's modulus on the response of soft active hydrogels to environmental solution pH changes. A chemo-electro-mechanical formulation termed the multi-effect-coupling pH-stimulus (MECpH) model, which was developed previously according to linear elastic theory for small deformation description, is improved in this paper through incorporation of the finite deformation formulation into the mechanical equilibrium equation. The model is expressed by coupled nonlinear partial differential equations and solved via the meshless Hermite-cloud method with the modified Newton iteration technique. The improved MECpH model is examined by comparison between the computational and published experimental results. Numerical studies are then done on the influence of Young's modulus on the distributive variations of the diffusive ion concentrations and electric potential, and on the deformation variations of the pH-stimulus-responsive hydrogels within different buffered solutions.