2016/07/08 by Lucantonio, Alessandro, Tomassetti, Giuseppe, DeSimone, Antonio
#FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1607.02528
We derive a large-strain plate model that allows to describe transient, coupled processes involving elasticity and solvent migration, by performing a dimensional reduction of a three-dimensional poroelastic theory. We apply the model to polymer gel plates, for which a specific kinematic constraint and constitutive relations hold. Finally, we assess the accuracy of the plate model with respect to the parent three-dimensional model through two numerical benchmarks, solved by means of the finite element method. Our results show that the theory offers an efficient computational framework for the study of swelling-induced morphing of composite gel plates.