| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2023 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Frontiers of Materials Award Symposium: Functional Composition Control of Surface Mechanics in Soft, Water-swollen Gels
|
| Presentation Title |
Contact Mechanics of Soft Hydrated Materials |
| Author(s) |
Yang Lai, Dongjing He, Yuhang Hu |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Yuhang Hu |
| Abstract Scope |
Soft gels and biological tissues resemble similar molecular structures - polymeric networks plus solvents. Mechanical characterization of these materials is challenging because of the extreme softness and complex time-dependent behavior. Comparatively, indentation is practically simple. In this work, we identify the underlying physics that governs the time-dependent behavior of gels and soft tissues and find scaling relations that allow for a unified solution and master curve independent of indenter geometries to be obtained. Besides, we also use indentation to study the adhesion hysteresis of these materials. Combining a unique multi-length scale indentation technique and rigorous theoretical analysis, we can decouple the time-dependent adhesion from the time-dependent bulk behaviors and extract the intrinsic interfacial properties including adhesion energy, separation distance, and cohesive strength. We also show the transition of mechanism from uniform bond breaking to Griffith type of fracture as the contact size goes across a big range of length scales. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: None Selected |