Simulation of the transient behavior of gels based on an analogy between diffusion and heat transfer

The transient behaviors of the swelling and deswelling of gels involve concurrent mechanical deformation and solvent diffusion and exhibit a fascinating phenomenon. In this paper, a simple numerical tool is developed by using an analogy between diffusion and heat transfer when large deformation presents for gels. Using this analogy, a finite element method is developed in the framework of a commercial finite element package ABAQUS via two material-specific user subroutines to describe the mechanical and mass diffusion behaviors of gels. The present method is not limited to any specific materials; therefore, this method can be extended to other materials that featured with coupled deformation and diffusion. This method is expected to be able to serve as a useful numerical tool to study related materials and problems due to its simplicity.