ABSTRACT
Chemomechanical couplings occur in many engineering and biological fields. Electro-chemomechanical couplings are also exploited by engineers. For example, electromigration is used to remediate soils polluted by heavy metals and electroosmosis to consolidate soils. In biological tissues, couplings arise as processes to maintain a certain equilibrium: swelling of articular cartilages opposes the water depletion that would occur due to mechanical compression. In some instances, they are driving processes: the cardiac function is a typical process of electro-chemomechanical coupling. A common feature to most, if not all, these examples is the presence of fixed electrical charges that play a key role in promoting the couplings.
