Toughness of double network hydrogels: the role of reduced stress propagation
Fuente:
arXiv
Enregistré dans:
| Auteurs principaux: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2025
|
| Sujets: | |
| Accès en ligne: | |
| Tags: |
Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
|
| _version_ | 1866916996711448576 |
|---|---|
| author | Walker, Samuel B. Fielding, Suzanne M. |
| author_facet | Walker, Samuel B. Fielding, Suzanne M. |
| contents | Double network hydrogels show remarkable mechanical performance, combining high strength and fracture toughness with sufficient stiffness to bear load, despite containing only a low density of cross-linked polymer molecules in water. We introduce a simple mesoscale model of a double network material, detailed enough to resolve the salient microphysics of local plastic bond breakage, yet simple enough to address macroscopic cracking. Load sharing between the networks results in a delocalisation of stress such that the double network inherits both the stiffness of its stiff-and-brittle sacrificial network and the ductility of its soft-and-ductile matrix network. The underlying mechanism is a reduction in the Eshelby stress propagator between sacrificial bonds, inhibiting the tendency for the plastic failure of one sacrificial bond to propagate stress to neighbouring sacrificial bonds and cause a follow-on cascade of breakages. The mechanism of brittle macroscopic cracking is thereby suppressed, giving instead ductile deformation via diffusely distributed microcracking. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_11340 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Toughness of double network hydrogels: the role of reduced stress propagation Walker, Samuel B. Fielding, Suzanne M. Soft Condensed Matter Double network hydrogels show remarkable mechanical performance, combining high strength and fracture toughness with sufficient stiffness to bear load, despite containing only a low density of cross-linked polymer molecules in water. We introduce a simple mesoscale model of a double network material, detailed enough to resolve the salient microphysics of local plastic bond breakage, yet simple enough to address macroscopic cracking. Load sharing between the networks results in a delocalisation of stress such that the double network inherits both the stiffness of its stiff-and-brittle sacrificial network and the ductility of its soft-and-ductile matrix network. The underlying mechanism is a reduction in the Eshelby stress propagator between sacrificial bonds, inhibiting the tendency for the plastic failure of one sacrificial bond to propagate stress to neighbouring sacrificial bonds and cause a follow-on cascade of breakages. The mechanism of brittle macroscopic cracking is thereby suppressed, giving instead ductile deformation via diffusely distributed microcracking. |
| title | Toughness of double network hydrogels: the role of reduced stress propagation |
| topic | Soft Condensed Matter |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.11340 |