Date/Time
Date(s) - 19/01/2026
11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Speaker: Duvan Henao (Universidad de O’Higgins)

Location: Hamilton Hall, Room 312

Title: Swelling-induced debonding of polymer gels

Abstract: We present a thin-film asymptotic analysis of the debonding of a polymer hydrogel from a rigid substrate when exposed to solvent [Polymer 335 (2025); SIAM J. Appl. Math. 84 (2024); J. Elast. 153 (2023); J. Elast. 141 (2020)]. When a confined simplified setting is considered, the higher integrability of Jacobians leads to a rigorous existence theorem for the polyconvex functional that results from adding the Flory-Huggins entropic mixing energy to the energy of the elastic distortion of polymer chains. The study of the energy release rate leads to a concise and explicit formula, whose range of validity is assessed by means of a particular finite element scheme. A numerical study also shows that the simplified formula also serves as an upper bound for the energy release rate in the unconfined three-dimensional case. This is work in collaboration with C. Calderer, C. Garavito, S. Lyu, L. Tapia, M. Sanchez, R. Siegel, and S. Song.