Coupled chemo-electro-mechanical finite element simulation of hydrogels: II. Electrical stimulation

Certain polyelectrolyte gels are distinguished by a large swelling or bending capability under the influence of external physical, chemical or electrical stimuli. In this paper we investigate the mechanisms occurring in polyelectrolyte gels due to externally applied electric fields. By applying a coupled chemo-electro-mechanical model which is extended and predestined for electrical stimulation, we describe the concentrations and the electric potential in both the gel and the solution as well as the locally different swelling and shrinking in the gel. The local change of geometry is formulated by a local osmotic pressure difference between the gel and the solution next to the gel phase. In addition to this effect, the change of the local gel domain leads to a local variation of the concentration of bound groups and thus to a change of the local concentrations of mobile ions. As the focus of the presented work we demonstrate the superiority of the fully coupled chemo-electro-mechanical description compared to the previously developed one-way chemo-electric to mechanical coupled model. Finally, by a qualitative comparison with experimental results, the validity of the fully coupled chemo-electro-mechanical model for electrical stimulation is demonstrated.