• Jana Wilmers, University Of Wuppertal
• Dai Okumura
• Laurence Brassart
• Nikolaos Bouklas

Solvent transport in deformable media is an often overlooked but critically important phenomenon associated with various technical and biological processes. In polymers and other soft materials, solvent transport is coupled to large deformations, which can in turn result in undesirable cracking and failure. Conversely, elastic swelling of materials due to solvent transport is exploited in many applications, such as tissue engineering, self-healing materials, surface engineering and many more. Additionally, solvent transport due to mechanical stresses is critical, e.g., to morphogenetic processes in biological tissues. Coupling between transport and deformation may be the source of unique functional properties utilised in, e.g., optical systems, biomedical applications or energy-storage materials.
As varied as applications and material behaviour determined by solvent transport are, computational modelling and simulation of these systems face common challenges due to the combination of strong chemo-mechanical coupling and large deformations.
In this minisymposium, contributions on recent progress in multiphysics modelling and numerical simulation of mass transport-induced deformation in polymers and soft materials are invited. The minisymposium facilitates an exchange about challenges, techniques and computational methods.

Topics of interest include (but are in no way limited to): hydrogels, electroactive polymers, swelling induced instabilities, surface pattern formation, transport limitations in materials processing, solid electrolytes, self-healing materials, biological tissues and morphogenetic processes.