9510066 Okos This project is on research to establish and verify a general multiphase-multispecies transport theory for hydrophilic shrinking systems by combining various independent theories that exist in the literature. A new thermomechanical theory potentially applicable to most hydrophilic shrinking systems such as foods, contact lenses, drug delivery polymers, and clays will lead to novel forms of Darcy's and Fick's laws applicable to saturated shrinking systems and to novel non-equilibrium definitions of swelling pressure and capillary pressure. This research proposes to extend the new thermomechanical theory into an experimentally verifiable form, to develop fundamental property models, and to verify the theory with experiments. ***
