The Mechanics of Hydrogels

The Mechanics of Hydrogels: Mechanical Properties, Testing, and Applications offers readers a systematic description of the mechanical properties and characterizations of hydrogels. Practical topics such as manufacturing hydrogels with controlled mechanical properties and the mechanical testing of hydrogels are covered at length, as are areas such as inelastic and nonlinear deformation, rheological characterization, fracture and indentation testing, mechanical properties of cellularly responsive hydrogels, and more. Proper instrumentation and modeling techniques for measuring the mechanical properties of hydrogels are also explored. Links the mechanical and biological behaviors and applications of hydrogels Looks at the manufacturing and mechanical testing of hydrogels Discusses the design and use of hydrogels in a wide array of applications

Finally, in Chapter 5, we investigate the spontaneous expulsion of fluid, that is, syneresis, from an industrially relevant system: a model low fat mayonnaise. Considering the mayonnaise as a porous material, and by accounting for the geometry of the experimental setup with a two-cylinder model, we describe the measured expulsion and we critically evaluate the appropriateness of the experimental setup.

This book is an Up-to-date and authoritative account on physicochemical principles, pharmaceutical and biomedical applications of hydrogels. It consists of eight contributions from different authors highlighting properties and synthesis of hydrogels, their characterization by various instrumental methods of analysis, comprehensive review on stimuli-responsive hydrogels and their diverse applications, and a special section on self-healing hydrogels. Thus, this book will equip academia and industry with adequate basic and applied principles related to hydrogels.

Hydrogels are crosslinked, macromolecular polymeric materials arranged in a three-dimensional network, which can absorb and retain large amounts of water. Hydrogels are commonly used in clinical practice and experimental medicine for a wide range of applications, including drug delivery, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, diagnostics, cellular immobilization, separation of biomolecules or cells, and barrier materials to regulate biological adhesions. This book elucidates the underlying concepts and emerging applications of hydrogels and will provide key case studies and critical analysis of the existing research.

Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials & Micro-and Nanomechanics, Volume 4 of the Proceedings of the 2019 SEM Annual Conference & Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics, the fourth volume of six from the Conference, brings together contributions to important areas of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on a wide range of topics, including: Extreme NanomechanicsIn-Situ NanomechanicsExpanding Boundaries in MetrologyMicro and Nanoscale DeformationMEMS for Actuation, Sensing and Characterization1D & 2D MaterialsCardiac MechanicsCell Mechanics Biofilms and Microbe MechanicsTraumatic Brain InjuryOrthopedic BiomechanicsLigaments and Soft Materials

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Mechanics of Biomaterials" that was published in Materials

Hydrogels Based on Natural Polymers presents the latest research on natural polymer-based hydrogels, covering fundamentals, preparation methods, synthetic pathways, advanced properties, major application areas, and novel characterization techniques. The advantages and disadvantages of each natural polymer-based hydrogel are also discussed, enabling preparation tactics for specific properties and applications. Sections cover fundamentals, development, characteristics, structures and properties. Additional chapters cover presentation methods and properties based on natural polymers, including physical and chemical properties, stimuli-responsive properties, self-healing properties, and biological properties. The final section presents major applications areas, including the biomedical field, agriculture, water treatments, and the food industry. This is a highly valuable resource for academic researchers, scientists and advanced students working with hydrogels and natural polymers, as well as across the fields of polymer science, polymer chemistry, plastics engineering, biopolymers and biomaterials. The detailed information will also be of great interest to scientists and R&D professionals, product designers, technicians and engineers across industries. Provides systematic coverage of all aspects of hydrogels based on natural polymers, including fundamentals, preparation methods, properties and characterization Offers a balanced assessment of the specific properties and possibilities offered by different natural polymer-based hydrogels, drawing on innovative research Examines cutting-edge applications across biomedicine, agriculture, water treatments, and the food industry

The book presents interesting examples of recent developments in this area. Among the studied materials are bulk metallic glasses, metamaterials, special composites, piezoelectric smart structures, nonwovens, etc. The last decades have seen a large extension of types of materials employed in various applications. In many cases these materials demonstrate mechanical properties and performance that vary significantly from those of their traditional counterparts. Such uniqueness is sought – or even specially manufactured – to meet increased requirements on modern components and structures related to their specific use. As a result, mechanical behaviors of these materials under different loading and environmental conditions are outside the boundaries of traditional mechanics of materials, presupposing development of new characterization techniques, theoretical descriptions and numerical tools. The book presents interesting examples of recent developments in this area. Among the studied materials are bulk metallic glasses, metamaterials, special composites, piezoelectric smart structures, nonwovens, etc.

Double-network (DN) hydrogels developed by Gong et al. (Advanced Materials 2003, 15, 1155) are interesting polymeric materials that despite their large water content (ca. 90 wt%) possess excellent strength and toughness. Those gels can undergo large deformations and exhibit intriguing mechanical behavior such as necking in tensile loading and idealized Mullins effect. DN hydrogels are the product of free radical polymerization of a water-soluble monomer like acrylamide (AAm) inside a highly crosslinked polyelectrolyte network like poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropsnesulfonic acid) [poly(AMPS)]. That polymerization process can be done with or without using a cross-linking monomer. Therefore, DN hydrogels were first thought to be interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) or semi-IPNs (SIPNs).The main objective of this dissertation was to understand the structure-property relationships in DN hydrogels and develop a model to capture their mechanical behavior.The experimental part of this study involves synthesis and characterization of tough chemically crosslinked hydrogels based on the DN concept and performing mechanical tests on them. A physical picture was developed to describe necking phenomenon in DN hydrogels. It was found that the necking phenomenon is triggered by the damage of the first network and necking occurs at the onset of load transfer from the first network to the second one. By providing experimental evidence, it was discovered that in DN hydrogels there is a covalent grafting between first and second networks and more importantly that grafting is necessary for achieving toughness. Therefore, DN hydrogels are not true IPN or SIPN structures and depending on whether crosslinking agent is used in the second polymerization step or not, the actual microstructure of a tough DN hydrogel is either a pseudo-IPN or pseudo-SIPN, respectively, where the prefix pseudo denotes connectivity of the two networks. Crack propagation and finite tensile deformation of DN hydrogels with pseudo-SIPNs and pseudo-IPNs architectures were compared. Moreover, the effect of polymerization of a third loosely crosslinked network inside a DN hydrogel was studied and discussed.In the theoretical part, a continuum damage model was developed to describe the large strain damage elasto-plastic behavior of DN hydrogels under tensile loading. The model was formulated by developing a physical picture of fracture process and incorporating a damage variable to a strain energy density function. The model is consistent with the experimental data and can capture the elasto-plastic behavior of the material without using a yield function. It was shown that a dimensionless parameter which is a ratio of two material parameters controls the behavior of the material. Those material parameters can be related to the elastic moduli of the first and second networks and in a fundamental level can be attributed to the crosslink densities of the first and second networks. The model can capture the stable branch of material response during necking when the engineering stress becomes constant during neck propagation.

Fracture and Fatigue, Volume 7: Proceedings of the 2013 Annual Conference on Experimental and Applied Mechanics, the seventh volume of eight from the Conference, brings together contributions to this important area of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on a wide range of areas, including: Microstructural Effects in Fatigue & Fracture Fracture of Interfaces Fracture of Composites and Interface Cracks Fatigue & Fracture: Environmental & Loading Effects Fracture & Digital Image Correlation

Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials, Volume 5: Proceedings of the 2012 Annual Conference on Experimental and Applied Mechanics represents one of seven volumes of technical papers presented at the Society for Experimental Mechanics SEM 12th International Congress & Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics, held at Costa Mesa, California, June 11-14, 2012. The full set of proceedings also includes volumes on Dynamic Behavior of Materials, Challenges in Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials and Processes in Conventional and Multifunctional Materials, Imaging Methods for Novel Materials and Challenging Applications, Experimental and Applied Mechanics, MEMS and Nanotechnology and, Composite Materials and Joining Technologies for Composites.

This volume of Progress in Colloid and Polymer Science assembles original contributions and invited reviews from the priority research program "Intelligent Hydrogels", funded by the German Science Foundation DFG since 2006, with about 25 contributing research groups. In the center of interest of this program and the present book are responsive hydrogels, i.e. hydrophilic polymer or polyelectrolyte networks that are able to respond to environmental stimuli such as changes in temperature, pH, additive concentration or electrical field. The activities focus on different aspects: on hydrogel synthesis, on the modeling and simulation of thermophysical hydrogel properties, as well as on innovative new hydrogel applications as smart materials. The present book summarizes the highlights in the results of the priority program in original contributions and invited reviews.

Stem Cell Nanoengineering reviews the applications of nanotechnology in the fields of stem cells, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Topics addressed include various types of stem cells, underlying principles of nanobiotechnology, the making of nano-scaffolds, nano tissue engineering, applications of nanotechnology in stem cell tracking and molecular imaging, nano-devices, as well as stem cell nano-engineering from bench to bedside. Written by renowned experts in their respective fields, chapters describe and explore a wide variety of topics in stem cell nanoengineering, making the book a valuable resource for both researchers and clinicians in biomedical and bioengineering fields.