Mechanical Instabilities of Gels

Although the study of gels undoubtedly takes its roots within the field of physicochemistry, the interest in gels has flourished and they have progressively become an important object in the study of the mechanics of polymeric materials and volumetric growth, raising some fascinating problems, some of them remaining unsolved. Because gels are multiphase objects, their study represents an important step in the understanding of the mechanics of complex soft matter as well as for the process of shape generation in biological bodies. The scope of this article is to review the understanding we have of the mechanical behavior of gels, with a strong focus on the development of instabilities in swelling gels.