Computer Modelling of Pattern Formation in Gels

Abstract

Pattern formation in gels has some peculiar nature due to the nonlinear elastic deformation of gel-materials. Examples are the surface patterns of swelling gels [1–5] and diffusive phase boundary between swollen phase and shrunken phase in gel rods [6,7]. The domain patterns of coexisting phases in bulk gels, however, have not been studied with emphasis on their peculiarities. The existing theories of phase coexistence in gels either describe gels essentially as multi-phase fluids separated by semi-permeable membranes [8], which is a valid description for isotropic states, or restrict to the uniaxial deformation where a parallelism to fluid phase separation again exists [9].