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Compressive failure of hydrogel spheres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2020

Jeremiah D. James ,
Jacob M. Ludwick ,
Mackenzie L. Wheeler  and
Michelle L. Oyen
Jeremiah D. James
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA
Jacob M. Ludwick
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA
Mackenzie L. Wheeler
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA
Michelle L. Oyen*
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: oyenm18@ecu.edu
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Abstract

Hydrogels have gained recent attention for biomedical applications because of their large water content, which imparts biocompatibility. However, their mechanical properties can be limiting. There has been significant recent interest in the strength and fracture toughness of hydrogel materials in addition to their stiffness and time-dependent behavior. Hydrogels can fail in a brittle manner, although they are extremely compliant. In this work, the failure and fracture of hydrogels are examined using a compression test of spherical hydrogel particles. Spheres of commercially available polyacrylamide–potassium polyacrylate were hydrated and tested to failure in compression as a function of loading rate. The spheres exhibited little relaxation when compressed to small fixed displacements. The distributions of strength values obtained were examined in a particle fracture framework previously used for brittle ceramics. There was loading rate dependence apparent in the measured peak force and calculated peak strength values, but the data fell on a single empirical distribution function of strength for the hydrogels regardless of loading rate. Strength values for these hydrogels were mostly in the range of 0.05–0.3 MPa, illustrating the challenges using hydrogels for mechanically demanding applications such as tissue engineering.

Keywords

fractureelastic propertiespolymer
Type
Invited Feature Paper
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 35 , Issue 10 , 28 May 2020 , pp. 1227 - 1235
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2020

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Footnotes

This paper has been selected as an Invited Feature Paper.

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