Stress Fluctuations in Transient Active Networks
Abstract
Inspired by experiments on dynamic extensile gels of biofilaments and motors, we propose a model of a network of linear springs with a kinetics consisting of growth at a prescribed rate, death after a lifetime drawn from a distribution, and birth at a randomly chosen node. The model captures features such as the build-up of self-stress, that are not easily incorporated into hydrodynamic theories. We study the model numerically and show that our observations can largely be understood through a stochastic effective-medium model. The resulting dynamically extending force-dipole network displays many features of yielded plastic solids, and offers a way to incorporate strongly non-affine effects into theories of active solids. A rather distinctive form for the stress distribution, and a Herschel-Bulkley dependence of stress on activity, are our major predictions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1901.08119,
title = {Stress Fluctuations in Transient Active Networks},
author = {Daniel Goldstein and Sriram Ramaswamy and Bulbul Chakraborty},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.08119},
year = {2019}
}