Related papers: Stiffest Elastic Networks
Assortativity, i.e. the tendency of a vertex to bond with another based on their similarity, such as degree, is an important network characteristic that is well-known to be relevant for the network's robustness against attacks. Commonly it…
Tissues commonly consist of cells embedded within a fibrous biopolymer network. Whereas cell-free reconstituted biopolymer networks typically soften under applied uniaxial compression, various tissues, including liver, brain, and fat, have…
We construct and analyze a model for a disordered linear spring network with anisotropy. The modeling is motivated by, for example, granular systems, nematic elastomers, and ultimately cytoskeletal networks exhibiting some underlying…
Prestrained elastic networks arise in a number of biological and technological systems ranging from the cytoskeleton of cells to tensegrity structures. To understand the response of such a network as a function of the prestrain, we consider…
Analyzing nonlinear conformational relaxation dynamics in elastic networks corresponding to two classical motor proteins, we find that they respond by well-defined internal mechanical motions to various initial deformations and that these…
Tunable mechanics and fracture resistance are hallmarks of biological tissues and highly desired in engineered materials. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, we study a rigidly percolating double network (DN) made of a stiff and a…
Collagen is the main structural and load-bearing element of various connective tissues, where it forms the extracellular matrix that supports cells. It has long been known that collagenous tissues exhibit a highly nonlinear stress-strain…
The recent discovery of universal principles underlying many complex networks occurring across a wide range of length scales in the biological world has spurred physicists in trying to understand such features using techniques from…
In the present paper, the simplest model of strain-gradient elasticity will be considered, that is the isotropy in a bidimensional space. Paralleling the definition of the classic elastic moduli, our aim is to introduce second-order…
Many mechanical structures, both engineered and biological, combine heavy rigid elements such as bones and beams with lightweight flexible ones such as cables and membranes. These are referred to as tensegrities, reflecting that cables can…
Biological networks have evolved to be highly functional within uncertain environments while remaining extremely adaptable. One of the main contributors to the robustness and evolvability of biological networks is believed to be their…
Networks and dense suspensions frequently reside near a boundary between soft (or fluid-like) and rigid (or solid-like) regimes. Transitions between these regimes can be driven by changes in structure, density, or applied stress or strain.…
With increasingly ambitious initiatives such as GENI and FIND that seek to design the future Internet, it becomes imperative to define the characteristics of robust topologies, and build future networks optimized for robustness. This paper…
Disordered networks of fragile elastic elements have been proposed as a model for inner porous regions of large bones [Gunaratne et.al., cond-mat/0009221]. In numerical studies, weakening of such networks is seen to be accompanied by…
The structure of polymer networks, defined by chain lengths and connectivity patterns, fundamentally influences their bulk properties. While existing polymer network models connect chain properties to emergent network behavior, they are…
The behaviour of elastic structures undergoing large deformations is the result of the competition between confining conditions, self-avoidance and elasticity. This combination of multiple phenomena creates a geometrical frustration that…
Since the invention of polymer networks in the 19th century (e.g., crosslinked natural rubber by Goodyear), it has been a dogma that stiffer networks are less stretchable, a trade-off inherent to the molecular nature of polymer network…
Here, we provide an overview of theoretical approaches to semiflexible polymers and their networks. Such semiflexible polymers have large bending rigidities that can compete with the entropic tendency of a chain to crumple up into a random…
Critically elastic materials - those that are rigid with a single state of self-stress - can be generated from parent systems with two states of self-stress by the removal of one of many constraints. We show that the elastic moduli of the…
Robustness of network of networks (NON) has been studied only for dependency coupling (J.X. Gao et. al., Nature Physics, 2012) and only for connectivity coupling (E.A. Leicht and R.M. D Souza, arxiv:0907.0894). The case of network of n…