Mechanics of tough hydrogels
Applied Mechanics, Statics and Dynamics
Polymer Materials
Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers
Final Report Abstract
In our investigation, several types of double network hydrogels have been synthesized and modeled. It turned out that PEG-based and gelatin-based double networks were unstable and were not suitable for mechanical testings. Whereas alginate-based double-network hydrogels provided satisfactory results on mechanical behaviors over a while range of synthesis compositions. The modeling part made use two types of double network hydrogels, the acrylamide-based one exhibiting damage cross-effect in multiaxial tension and alginatebased one which can partly recover after one cycle of loading. Our model demonstrated that the damage cross-effect can be elucidated by the strong interpenetration of the second network into the first network. Accordingly, the damage in one direction is controlled by deformation history in all directions, which requires anisotropic damage concept. This can be well captured by an application of the analytical network averaging to thermodynamics of internal variables. Furthermore, a sparse regression learner and an analytical damageelastoplastic model were combined to directly predict the mechanical behavior of Alg/PAAm double network hydrogels from their synthesis data. The sparse regression delivers interpretable relations between synthesis parameters and material constants of the damageelastoplastic model which match well with stereochemistry evidences. Since the current approach allows for a direct computation of mechanical response of alginate-based hydrogels from the design phase, it is a step towards tailoring synthesis parameters to archive desired mechanical properties of double network hydrogels.
Publications
- (2019). A Multiaxial Theory of Double Network Hydrogels. Macromolecules, 52(15), 5937–5947
Khiêm, V. N., Mai, T.-T., Urayama, K., Gong, J. P., & Itskov, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.9b01044) - “Synthesis of water-soluble furanfunctionalized polyelectrolytes and polyelectrolyte networks”, in Frontiers in Polymer Science. 2019: Budapest (Ungarn)
Oliver Gorke, Günter E.M. Tovar, Alexander Southan
