Rheometric measurement of hydrogel toughness

As soft physical gels become more popular due to their biological applications, there is increased interest in measuring mechanical properties such as toughness. However, traditional tensile testing methods do not work for such materials due to the intrinsic softness of the material. We present a novel method for measuring fracture energy using a rheometer and show it is broadly consistent with the pure shear test, a standard method where the material exhibits mode I fracture. This method has potential applications in characterizing a wide range of soft and transient gels.

Name thesis:degree_name

Bachelor

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Read, Helen E.S.B.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gareth H. McKinley,

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127870

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127870