Dynamics of active swelling in contractile polymer gels

Abstract The transient behaviour of extremely soft and soft active polymer gels is investigated through a stress-diffusion model which takes into account the active behaviour of the polymer network when molecular motors are included in the solvent bath. The latter is described as a remodeling of the polymer network. The problem of isotropic contraction induced by a homogeneous distribution of molecular motors is explicitly set up and solved. The results have been compared with experiments and show excellent agreement.