GEL RELEASE TECHNOLOGY: SIMULATION WITH EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION

THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THIS WORK IS TO IMPROVE THE PREDICTION AND OPTIMIZATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF POLYMER GELS IN MANY APPLICATIONS IN THE AGRICULTURAL, PHARMACEUTICAL, AND CHEMICAL PRODUCTION AND PURIFICATION INDUSTRIES. THESE IMPROVEMENTS WILL BE BROUGHT ABOUT BY INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF TRANSPORT, FLOW, AND SWELLING IN POLYMER GELS THROUGH: (1) ELUCIDATION OF THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA FUNDAMENTAL TO THEIR BEHAVIOR, (2) QUANTIFICATION OF THESE PHENOMENA IN A MATHEMATICAL MODEL, AND (3) DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERIMENTALLY VERIFIED SOFTWARE TOOL IMPLEMENTING THESE MODELS. DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF GEL-BASED TECHNOLOGIES COULD BE SIGNIFICANTLY ACCELERATED BY THE AVAILABILITY OF SOFTWARE ABLE TO ROBUSTLY PREDICT RELEASE, SWELLING, AND OTHER TRANSPORT PROPERTIES AS A FUNCTION OF MATERIAL PARAMETERS BASED ON A UNIFIED, EXPERIMENTALLY VERIFIED MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE RELEVANT PHYSICOCHEMICAL PHENOMENA. MANY APPLICATIONS OF POLYMERS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE COUPLING IN POLYMER GELS OF ELECTRIC FIELDS; CONVECTIVE AND DIFFUSIVE TRANSPORT; AND CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL KINETICS. THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THIS WORK IS TO PERFORM NUMERICAL COMPUTATIONS BASED ON A PROTOTYPE MODEL IN ORDER TO PREDICT GEL SWELLING AND STRESSES, CHARGE DENSITY, SOLUTE CONCENTRATIONS, AND SOLUTE AND SOLVENT FLUXES. THE MODEL WILL BE VALIDATED BY COMPARING ITS PREDICTIONS WITH AN EXPERIMENT ON RELEASE OF BLUE DEXTRANS.