Swelling of a granular hydrogel medium under confinement: individual and collective dynamic

CRISTÓFARO, L.; FALCIONI, S.; BINDA, L.; ROHT, Y. L.; DRAZER, G.; IPPOLITO, I.

EPJ Web of Conferences

EDP Sciences

Lugar: Le Ulis Cedex A; Año: 2021 vol. 249

2100-014X

The growth dynamics of polyacrylamide hydrogel beads due to liquid absorption under geometric confinement is studied. First, the behavior of individual hydrogel beads is investigated and, subsequently, the growth dynamics is analyzed in the presence of several interacting beads of the same material. In both, individual and collective studies, the magnitude of the geometric confinement is varied, in order to investigate the effect that the stress applied on the particles has on their hydration kinetics.