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Mechanical characterization and modeling of sponge-reinforced hydrogel composites under compression
Lei Wu1, Guoyong Mao, Guodong Nian
1State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power & Mechatronic System, Key Laboratory of Soft Machines and Smart Devices of Zhejiang Province, and Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. jqian@zju.edu.cn squ@zju.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Load-bearing applications of hydrogels call for materials with excellent mechanical properties. Despite the considerable progress in developing tough hydrogels, there is still a requirement to prepare high-performance hydrogels using simple strategies. In this paper, a sponge-reinforced hydrogel composite is synthesized by combining poly(acrylamide) (PAAm) hydrogel and polyurethane (PU) sponge. Uniaxial compressive testing of the hydrogel composites reveals that both the compressive modulus and the strength of the hydrogel composites are much higher than those of the PAAm hydrogel or sponge. In order to predict the compressive modulus of the hydrogel composite, we develop a theoretical model that is validated by experiments and numerical simulations. The present work may guide the design and manufacture of hydrogel-based composite materials, especially for biomaterial scaffolds and soft transducers.
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