Defining a swelling gel

You can model the growth of gel particles that swell and trap wetting liquid in a partially saturated porous medium. For more information, see Swelling Gel.

  1. From the menu bar in the Edit Material dialog box, select OtherPore FluidGel.

    (For information on displaying the Edit Material dialog box, see Creating or editing a material.)

  2. Enter the following data in the Data table:

    r_a(dry)

    Radius of gel particles when completely dry, radry. (Units of L.)

    r_a(f)

    Fully swollen radius of gel particles, raf. (Units of L.)

    k_a

    Number of gel particles per unit volume, ka. (Units of L−3.)

    tau_1

    Relaxation time constant for long-term swelling of gel particles, τ1. (Units of T.)

  3. Click OK to close the Edit Material dialog box. Alternatively, you can select another material behavior to define from the menus in the Edit Material dialog box (see Browsing and modifying material behaviors, for more information).