Solvent uptake and cavitation

Abstract

This paper offers a treatment for investigating the role of the interplay between mechanics and the absorption of a swelling agent on the equilibrium and cavitation of a spherical specimen. This treatment is then applied, within the context of the classical theory of swelling of a rubber by a liquid, to establish, among other things, necessary conditions for the existence of multiphase equilibria and the occurrence of cavitation. These conditions involve the parameters entering the theory, namely the number cS of polymer chains per unit reference volume, the volume v occupied by a swelling-agent molecule, and the Flory–Huggins interaction parameter X.