Strain stiffening elastomers with swelling inclusions

Inhomogeneously swollen elastomers are an emergent class of materials, comprising elastic matrices with inclusion phases in the form of microgel particles or osmolytes. Inclusion phases can undergo osmotically driven swelling and deswelling over orders of magnitude. In the swollen state, the inclusions typically have negligible Young's modulus, and the matrix is strongly deformed. In that regime, the effective mechanical properties of the composite are governed by the matrix. Laying the groundwork for a generic analysis of inhomogeneously swollen elastomers, we develop a model based on incremental mean-field homogenization of a hyperelastic matrix. The framework allows for the computation of the macroscopic effective stiffness for arbitrary hyperelastic matrix materials. For an in-depth quantification of the local effective stiffness, we extend the concept of elastic stiffness maps to incompressible materials. For strain-stiffening materials, stiffness maps in the swollen state highlight pronounced radial stiffening with a non-monotonic change in stiffness in the hoop direction. Stiffening characteristics are sensitive to the form of constitutive models, which may be exploited in the design of hydrated actuators, soft composites and metamaterials. For validation, we apply this framework to a Yeoh material, and compare to recently published data. Model predictions agree well with experimental data on elastomers with highly swollen embedded microgel particles. We identify three distinct regimes related to an increasing degree of particle swelling: first, an initial decrease in composite stiffness is attributed to particle softening upon liquid intake. Second, dilute particle swelling leads to matrix stiffening dominating over particle softening, resulting in an increase in composite stiffness. Third, for swelling degrees beyond the dilute limit, particle interactions dominate further matrix stiffening.