01169nas a2200133   4500008004100000245007700041210006900118260003400187520069100221100002700912700002300939700002200962856005100984       2014                        en  d00aSwelling dynamics of a thin elastomeric sheet under uniaxial pre-stretch0 aSwelling dynamics of a thin elastomeric sheet under uniaxial pre  bAmerican Institute of Physics3 aIt has been demonstrated experimentally that pre-stretch affects the swelling of an elastomeric membrane when it is exposed to a solvent. We study theoretically the one-dimensional swelling of a pre-stretched thin elastomeric sheet, bonded to an impermeable rigid substrate, to quantify the influence of pre-stretch. We show that the solvent uptake increases when pre-stretch increases, both at equilibrium and during the swelling transient, where it exhibits two different scaling regimes. The coupling between the solvent uptake and pre-stretch may be practically exploited to design soft actuators where the swelling-induced deformations can be controlled by varying the pre-stretch.1 aLucantonio, Alessandro1 aNardinocchi, Paola1 aStone, Howard, A.  uhttp://urania.sissa.it/xmlui/handle/1963/3511301394nas a2200133   4500008004100000245006500041210006400106260002800170520094000198100002701138700002301165700002101188856005101209       2014                        en  d00aSwelling-induced and controlled curving in layered gel beams0 aSwellinginduced and controlled curving in layered gel beams  bRoyal Society of London3 aWe 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.1 aLucantonio, Alessandro1 aNardinocchi, Paola1 aPezzulla, Matteo  uhttp://urania.sissa.it/xmlui/handle/1963/34987