@article {2014, title = {Swelling-induced and controlled curving in layered gel beams}, number = {Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences;volume 470; issue 2171;}, year = {2014}, publisher = {Royal Society of London}, abstract = {We describe swelling-driven curving in originally straight and non-homogeneous beams. We present and verify a structural model of swollen beams, based on a new point of view adopted to describe swelling-induced deformation processes in bilayered gel beams, that is based on the split of the swelling-induced deformation of the beam at equilibrium into two components, both depending on the elastic properties of the gel. The method allows us to: (i) determine beam stretching and curving, once assigned the characteristics of the solvent bath and of the non-homogeneous beam, and (ii) estimate the characteristics of non-homogeneous flat gel beams in such a way as to obtain, under free-swelling conditions, three-dimensional shapes. The study was pursued by means of analytical, semi-analytical and numerical tools; excellent agreement of the outcomes of the different techniques was found, thus confirming the strength of the method.}, doi = {10.1098/rspa.2014.0467}, url = {http://urania.sissa.it/xmlui/handle/1963/34987}, author = {Alessandro Lucantonio and Paola Nardinocchi and Matteo Pezzulla} }