Mechanics of hydrogels and poroelastic media #

Organisers: Matthew Hennessy and Matthew Butler

Minisymposium abstract

Deformable porous solids that are filled with fluid appear in a wide range of natural and industrial contexts. A key feature of these so-called poroelastic materials is the tight coupling between fluid and solid mechanics: fluid flow through the pore space can deform the solid matrix which, in turn, affects the flow. Theoretically studying poroelastic materials opens the doors to a wide range of mathematical challenges including multi-physics and multi-scale modelling, model reduction and asymptotic techniques for nonlinear elasticity, instability and pattern formation, and large-scale numerical simulations. The aim of this mini-symposium is highlight these challenges and the new physical insights that arise from overcoming them. Particular attention will be paid to problems involving hydrogels, which are an important class of stimuli-responsive poroelastic materials that find use in soft robotics, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery.

Mechanics of hydrogels and poroelastic media #

Multiscale modelling of a fibrous bioreactor scaffold #

Formation and collapse of gas cavities in a soft porous medium #

Multiple scales homogenisation of a porous viscoelastic material with rigid inclusions #

Swelling-induced folds in soft microchannels #

Computational Modelling of stimuli-responsive hydrogels #

Curvature-controlled beading in stretched hydrogel cylinders #