Modeling for analysis of the effect of Young’s modulus on soft active hydrogels subject topH stimulus

Abstract

Modeling is conducted in this paper for analysis of the influence of Young’s moduluson the response of soft active hydrogels to environmental solution pH changes. Achemo–electro–mechanical formulation termed the multi-effect-coupling pH-stimulus(MECpH) model, which was developed previously according to linear elastic theory forsmall deformation description, is improved in this paper through incorporation of the finitedeformation formulation into the mechanical equilibrium equation. The model is expressedby coupled nonlinear partial differential equations and solved via the meshlessHermite-cloud method with the modified Newton iteration technique. The improvedMECpH model is examined by comparison between the computational and publishedexperimental results. Numerical studies are then done on the influence of Young’s moduluson the distributive variations of the diffusive ion concentrations and electric potential, andon the deformation variations of the pH-stimulus-responsive hydrogels within differentbuffered solutions.