Spherical indentation testing of poroelastic relaxations in thin hydrogel layers

• DOI: 10.1039/c1sm06514a
• Publication Date: 2011-12-06T12:18:35Z
• Authors: Edwin P. Chan; Yuhang Hu; Peter M. Johnson; Zhigang Suo; Christopher M. St...
• Keywords: Poromechanics; Indentation; Shear modulus; Thin layers; Stress relaxation

In this work, we present the Poroelastic Relaxation Indentation (PRI) testing approach for quantifying mechanical and transport properties of thin layers poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels with thicknesses on order 200 μm. Specifically, PRI characterizes poroelastic relaxation in by indenting material at fixed depth measuring contact area-dependent load process as a function time. With aid linear theory developed or geometrically confined swollen polymer networks, demonstrate that can quantify water diffusion coefficient, shear modulus average pore size hydrogel layer. This provides simple methodology to networks relevant phenomena.