Date: Thursday October 10th, 2013
Location: Hackerman Hall B-17
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Speaker: Prof Lallit Anand
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02139-4307
Phone: 617-253-1635
Fax: 617-258-8742
Email: [email protected]
Title:
Gel Mechanics: A Thermo-Mechanically Coupled Theory for Fluid Permeation in Elastomeric Materials
Abstract:
An elastomeric gel is a cross-linked polymer network swollen with a solvent, and certain gels can undergo large reversible volume changes as they are cycled about a critical temperature. We have developed a continuum-level theory to describe the coupled mechanical deformation, fluid permeation, and heat transfer of such thermally-responsive gels. In discussing special constitutive equations we limit our attention to isotropic materials, and consider a model based on a Flory-Huggins model for the free energy change due to mixing of the fluid with the polymer network, coupled with a non-Gaussian statistical-mechanical model for the change in configurational entropy — a model which accounts for the limited extensibility of polymer chains. We have numerically implemented our theory in a finite element program. We show that our theory is capable of simulating swelling, squeezing of fluid by applied mechanical forces, and thermally-responsive swelling/deswelling of such materials.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Lallit Anand, is the Warren and Towneley Rohsenow Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He teaches subjects related to Solid Mechanics, Mechanics of Materials, and Continuum Mechanics. He has recently co-authored a book titled The Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Continua with Morton Gurtin and Eliot Fried. The honors he has received include: Eric Reissner Medal, 1992, for outstanding contributions to the field of Mechanics of Materials in the past decade from the International Society for Computational Engineering & Sciences, Khan International Plasticity Medal, 2007, for outstanding life-long contributions to the field of Plasticity from the International Journal of Plasticity.
Faculty Host: Prof. Somnath Ghosh, 203 Latrobe, 410-516-7833, [email protected]
For more information, please contact Jae Hong, 410-516-5033, [email protected]