Related papers: Programming filamentous network mechanics by compr…

We study the micromechanics of collagen-I gel with the goal of bridging the gap between theory and experiment in the study of biopolymer networks. Three-dimensional images of fluorescently labeled collagen are obtained by confocal…

Artificial neural networks used for reinforcement learning are structurally rigid, meaning that each optimized parameter of the network is tied to its specific placement in the network structure. It also means that a network only works with…

We study the buckling of a one fiber composite whose matrix stiffness is slightly dependent on the compressive force. We show that the equilibrium curves of the system exhibit a limit load when the induced stiffness parameter gets bigger…

Constitutive models that describe the mechanical behavior of soft tissues have advanced greatly over the past few decades. These expert models are generalizable and require the calibration of a number of parameters to fit experimental data.…

For thin networked materials, which are spatial discrete structures constructed by continuum components, a paradox on the effective thickness defined by the in-plane and out-of-plane stiffnesses is found, i.e. the effective thickness is not…

Recent studies in mammalian hearts show that left ventricular wall thickening is an important mechanism for systolic ejection and that during contraction the cardiac muscle develops significant stresses in the muscular cross-fiber…

Disordered athermal biopolymer materials, such as collagen networks that constitute a major component in extracellular matrices and various connective tissues, are initially soft and compliant but stiffen dramatically under strain. Such…

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…

Semiflexible polymers such as filamentous actin play a vital role in the mechanical behavior of cells, yet the basic properties of cross-linked F-actin networks remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we have performed numerical…

Stretching an elastic material along one axis typically induces contraction along the transverse axes, a phenomenon known as the Poisson effect. From these strains, one can compute the specific volume, which generally either increases or,…

From the complex motions of robots to the oxygen binding of hemoglobin, the function of many mechanical systems depends on large, coordinated movements of their components. Such movements arise from a network of physical interactions in the…

We present a statistical mechanical study of stiff polymers, motivated by experiments on actin filaments and the considerable current interest in polymer networks. We obtain simple, approximate analytical forms for the force-extension…

Assessing the synthesizability of inorganic materials is a grand challenge for accelerating their discovery using computations. Synthesis of a material is a complex process that depends not only on its thermodynamic stability with respect…

In the present work, a machine learning based constitutive model for electro-mechanically coupled material behavior at finite deformations is proposed. Using different sets of invariants as inputs, an internal energy density is formulated…

The relation between network structure and dynamics is determinant for the behavior of complex systems in numerous domains. An important long-standing problem concerns the properties of the networks that optimize the dynamics with respect…

The computational analysis of fiber network fracture is an emerging field with application to paper, rubber-like materials, hydrogels, soft biological tissue, and composites. Fiber networks are often described as probabilistic structures of…

Knitting turns yarn, a 1D material, into a 2D fabric that is flexible, durable [1], and can be patterned to adopt a wide range of 3D geometries [2]. Like other mechanical metamaterials [3], the elasticity of knitted fabrics is an emergent…

Compression stiffening, or an increase in shear modulus with increasing compressive strain, has been observed in recent rheometry experiments on brain, liver, and fat tissues. Here, we extend the known types of biomaterials exhibiting this…

We study the elasticity of random fiber networks. Starting from a microscopic picture of the non-affine deformation fields we calculate the macroscopic elastic moduli both in a scaling theory and a self-consistent effective medium theory.…

Geometric graph models of systems as diverse as proteins, robots, and mechanical structures from DNA assemblies to architected materials point towards a unified way to represent and control them in space and time. While much work has been…