The chemo-mechanical coupling behavior of hydrogels incorporating entanglements of polymer chains

To describe precisely the chemo-mechanical coupling behavior of hydrogels, a general form of free energy density function is presented by considering chain entanglements and functionality of junctions. We use the chemical potential of the solvent and the deformation gradient of the network as the independent variables of the developed free energy function, and implement this material model in the finite element package, ABAQUS, to analyze several examples of chemo-mechanical equilibrium deformation behaviors of hydrogels. The influence of chain entanglements and junction functionality on the chemo-mechanical behavior of hydrogels is addressed based on our simulation. With the coded subroutine UHYPER, this work may provide a numerical tool to study complex phenomena in hydrogels.