Integrated Experiments and Modeling of Smart Polymeric Gels

该奖项支持基础研究，为理解智能聚合物凝胶的行为提供新知识。这些材料在各种刺激下会改变形状，在现代世界中无处不在。它们在许多重要的应用中都有不同的用途，包括药物输送载体、致动器和传感器、组织工程基质，以及油井和水力压裂作业中的层间隔离封隔器。对材料行为的基本理解的限制和缺乏实验数据阻碍了有效的分析。这项研究的结果将通过提供经过验证和验证的工程模拟工具，进一步扩大智能聚合物凝胶的使用范围。此外，让代表性不足的本科群体参与研究将扩大STEM的参与。该项目为市中心的预科学生提供了参加涉及材料和结构基本力学的教育活动的机会。该活动将侧重于用3D打印聚合物制成的结构的梁弯曲力学。因此，本研究的结果将对从大学预科到研究生的各级社会、经济和教育产生积极的影响。根据该奖项开发的计算机代码将与研究界共享。该项目的研究目标是研究一种新的实验验证的基于模拟的能力，用于对反应性凝胶（中性和离子）制成的设备进行稳健分析。该研究项目系统地研究了刺激响应型智能聚合物凝胶的多物理场大变形耦合行为，其中膨胀受温度、离子浓度或ph值的调节。研究团队将对许多聚合物凝胶系统进行多物理场实验，以获得材料在各种条件下的行为。在实验的基础上，将在热力学一致的连续介质力学环境下建立新的物理驱动构成理论。这些理论将通过编写用户定义的元素，将所有相关物理（如流体扩散、大变形弹性、热传导和物种守恒）耦合在一起，在数值上实现为有限元模拟能力。最后，该团队将验证理论的预测能力及其在不用于校准的复杂三维几何形状中的数值实现。将实验，理论和计算结合在一起，我们的综合研究计划提供了一个不可或缺的实验数据集，以及一个新的本构框架，以及由刺激响应凝胶制成的设备的建模和仿真的变革性数值能力。

This award supports fundamental research to provide new knowledge toward understanding the behavior of smart polymeric gels. These materials change in shape in response to various stimuli, and are ubiquitous in the modern world. They find diverse use in several important applications including carriers for drug delivery, actuators and sensors, tissue engineering matrices, and packers for zonal isolation in oil wells and hydraulic fracturing operations. Limitations in the fundamental understanding of the material behavior and a lack of experimental data hinder efficient analysis. The results of this research would further expand the use of smart polymeric gels by providing validated and verified engineering simulation tools. In addition, engaging of underrepresented undergraduate groups in research will broaden STEM participation. The program provides pre-college inner city students the opportunity to participate in an educational activity involving basic mechanics of materials and structures. This activity will focus on the mechanics of beam bending of structures made with 3D printed polymers. Therefore, the results from this research will have a positive impact on society, the economy, and education at all levels from pre-college to post-graduate. The computer code developed under this award will be shared with the research community. The research objective of this project is to conduct research on a new experimentally validated simulation-based capability for the robust analysis of devices made from responsive gels, both neutral and ionic. The research program systematically studies the multiphysics large-deformation coupled behavior of stimulus-responsive smart polymeric gels, in which the swelling is regulated by temperature, concentration of ions, or pH. The research team will conduct multiphysics experiments on a number of polymeric gel systems to obtain the material's behavior under a wide range of conditions. Based on the experiments, new physically motivated constitute theories will be formulated in a thermodynamically consistent continuum mechanics setting. Those theories will be numerically implemented into a finite element simulation capability by writing user defined elements that couple all the relevant physics, such as fluid diffusion, large deformation elasticity, heat conduction, and the conservation of species. Lastly, the team will validate the predictive capability of the theories and their numerical implementation in complex three-dimensional geometries not used for calibration. Bringing experiments, theory, and computation together, our integrated research program provides an indispensable experimental data set, as well as a new constitutive framework, and transformative numerical capability for the modeling and simulation of devices made from stimulus responsive gels.