We describe swelling-driven curving in originally straight and non-homogeneous beams. We present and verify a structural model of swollen beams, based on a new point of view adopted to describe swelling-induced deformation processes in bilayered gel beams, that is based on the split of the swelling-induced deformation of the beam at equilibrium into two components, both depending on the elastic properties of the gel. The method allows us to: (i) determine beam stretching and curving, once assigned the characteristics of the solvent bath and of the non-homogeneous beam, and (ii) estimate the characteristics of non-homogeneous flat gel beams in such a way as to obtain, under free-swelling conditions, three-dimensional shapes. The study was pursued by means of analytical, semi-analytical and numerical tools; excellent agreement of the outcomes of the different techniques was found, thus confirming the strength of the method.
Titolo: | Swelling-induced and controlled curving in layered gel beams |
Autori: | Lucantonio, A.; Nardinocchi, P.; Pezzulla, M. |
Rivista: | |
Data di pubblicazione: | 2014 |
Volume: | 470 |
Fascicolo: | 2171 |
Pagina iniziale: | 271 |
Pagina finale: | 286 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | 10.1098/rspa.2014.0467 |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 1.1 Journal article |