Abstract
Over the past few decades, many efforts have been made in the research of controlled drug release systems, which is an effective way to solve the problem of poor curative effect. Due to their excellent biocompatibility, hydrogels have a wide application as promising drug carrier materials in pharmaceutical domain. In this paper, a new mathematical model was established based on the multiphasic theory of hydrogels, and a commercial finite element solver was adopted to implement the simulation of drug release from a swollen hydrogel. Simulated results show that the swelling of the hydrogel carrier begins from the edge to the center, and the drug release is initially anomalous transport followed by Fickian diffusion when the swelling of the hydrogel approaches to a new equilibrium state.