Mesoscale Modeling of Hydrogels Under Frictional Shear Stress
Mehdi Karimi, Amir Poorghani, Angela A. Pitenis, Alexander Alexeev
TL;DR
This paper uses computer simulations to study how hydrogels behave under friction, revealing how their structure affects lubrication.
Contribution
The study introduces a computational model using dissipative particle dynamics to explore hydrogel friction at mesoscale.
Findings
Hydrogel friction is governed by the interplay between polymer relaxation and viscous shear.
Friction increases linearly with the Weissenberg number at higher values.
Friction coefficient decreases with increasing normal load.
Abstract
Hydrogels are three-dimensional networks of hydrophilic polymers often used as a simplified model of hydrated biological materials, from cartilaginous joints to the ocular tear film. However, the lubrication mechanisms of hydrogels remain poorly understood, partly due to their complex polymeric structure, which creates blurred interfaces during sliding that are challenging to study experimentally. In this study, we employ dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) to investigate the frictional behavior of a polymeric hydrogel network sliding against a solid wall in an explicit viscous solvent. This computational approach enables us to model hydrodynamic interactions and mesoscale polymer dynamics, capturing key aspects of hydrogel friction. Our simulations reveal that hydrogel friction is governed by the interplay between polymer relaxation and viscous shear, characterized by the Weissenberg…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Click any figure to enlarge with its caption.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15
Figure 16
Figure 17
Figure 18Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsHydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications · Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions · Blood properties and coagulation