Hydrogel two-phase flows: hydrodynamics and applications

水凝胶两相流：流体动力学和应用

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-04162
• 负责人: Feng, James
• 金额: $ 2.84万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=687347
• 关键词: Hydrogel; two; phase; flows; hydrodynamics

Hydrogels are soft deformable materials important to many emerging technologies. Because of their softness and lack of toxicity, they are often used in small “organ-on-chip” devices to hold and nurture cells that can grow into functional tissues and organs. Another application is in the oil and gas industry. The drilling and sealing of gas and oil wells require pumping a thicker and stiffer liquid into the well to displace water. Hydrogel is a good candidate for such a liquid, as it is a soft solid that becomes a flowing liquid when pumped. Thus, its liquid-solid duality serves a unique role in these applications.******For the design and optimization of such technologies, we need to understand how hydrogels flow and how they melt and solidify. The physics of this turns out to be complex thanks to their complex inner structure. Hydrogels are made of chain-like molecules, called polymers, that are cross-linked together into a network, and swollen with water. Depending on external forcing, temperature and chemical agents, a gel can melt or solidify reversibly. Besides, in most applications, hydrogels are deployed using liquids, thus generating a hydrogel-liquid layered flow scenario. For example, a gel solution may be pumped into place before gelation, or solid gels may be carried by another liquid into desirable locations. How does a hydrogel interact mechanically with a flowing liquid? How does flow influence the swelling/shrinking and melting of the gel? How to use liquid flow to control the gel-fluid interface? Such questions have rarely been raised, and practical applications mostly proceed through trial and error. The answers to these questions will not only be key to advancing our scientific understanding of these fascinating materials, but also important to the technological applications mentioned above.******We propose to establish a theoretical framework for describing and predicting this highly complex hydrogel-liquid material. Moreover, we aim to develop computational methods and software that engineers can use to predict the flow and the structure of the hydrogel-liquid mixture system. The nature of this work will be mostly mathematical and computational; it will quantify our understanding of these complex fluids and link that knowledge to applications in emerging technologies.******The research will likely have its greatest societal impact in the fields of biomedical engineering and drug delivery. Hydrogel-based organ-on-chip devices can be used to reproduce key tissue and organ functions; these can enable breakthroughs in drug testing and tissue engineering, and may even lead to implantable devices. Using gels to encapsulate drug particles gives us a new way to deliver drugs into target areas in the human body and to control the release of the drugs over a long period of time. Therefore, the proposed work will not only advance an area of scientific research, but also have far-reaching benefits for Canada and beyond.

水凝胶是对许多新兴技术很重要的软可变形材料，由于其柔软且无毒性，它们通常用于小型“器官芯片”装置中，以容纳和培育可以生长成功能组织和器官的细胞。在石油和天然气行业，天然气和油井的钻探和密封需要将更稠密和更坚硬的液体泵入井中以取代水，因为它是一种软固体，可以变成水。流动液体时因此，其液固二元性在这些应用中发挥着独特的作用。******为了设计和优化此类技术，我们需要了解水凝胶如何流动以及它们如何熔化和凝固。由于其复杂的内部结构，水凝胶由链状分子（称为聚合物）组成，这些分子交联成网络，并根据外部压力、温度和化学试剂而膨胀。凝胶可以熔化或凝固此外，在大多数应用中，水凝胶是使用液体展开的，从而产生水凝胶-液体分层流动的场景，例如，凝胶溶液可以在凝胶化之前被泵入到位，或者固体凝胶可以被另一种液体携带到所需的位置。水凝胶如何与流动的液体发生机械相互作用？流动如何影响凝胶的膨胀/收缩和熔化？如何利用液体流动来控制凝胶-流体界面？通过反复试验来回答这些问题不仅是推进我们对这些令人着迷的材料的科学理解的关键，而且对于上述技术应用也很重要。******我们建议建立一个理论框架此外，我们的目标是开发工程师可以用来预测水凝胶-液体混合物系统的流动和结构的计算方法和软件。这项工作的本质主要是数学和数学。计算；它将量化我们对这些复杂流体的理解并将其联系起来******该研究可能会在生物医学工程和药物输送领域产生最大的社会影响，可用于复制关键组织和器官。这些功能可以在药物测试和组织工程方面取得突破，甚至可能导致使用凝胶封装药物颗粒，为我们提供了一种将药物输送到人体目标区域并控制药物释放的新方法。因此，拟议的工作将不会在很长一段时间内。不仅推进了一个科学研究领域，而且还为加拿大及其他地区带来深远的利益。