Related papers: Exploring the Nonlinear Rheology of Composite Hydr…
Soft particulate gels can reversibly yield when sufficient deformation is applied, and the characteristics of this transition can be enhanced or limited by designing hybrid hydrogel composites. While the microscopic dynamics and macroscopic…
Fibrous networks such as collagen are common in biological systems. Recent theoretical and experimental efforts have shed light on the mechanics of single component networks. Most real biopolymer networks, however, are composites made of…
Biomimetic hydrogels based on natural polymers are a promising class of biomaterial, mimicking the natural extra-cellular matrix of biological tissues and providing cues for cell attachment, proliferation and differentiation. With a view to…
Understanding a material's dissipative response is important for their use in many applications, such as adhesion or fracture resistance. In dispersions, the interplay between matrix and inclusions complicates any description. Fractional…
We present a theoretical framework for the linear and nonlinear visco-elastic properties of reversibly crosslinked networks of semiflexible polymers. In contrast to affine models where network strain couples to the polymer end-to-end…
We analyze the properties of a nonlinear metamaterial formed by integrating nonlinear components or materials into the capacitive regions of metamaterial elements. A straightforward homogenization procedure leads to general expressions for…
We propose a nonlinear extension of the standard tube model for semidilute solutions of freely-sliding semiflexible polymers. Non-affine filament deformations at the entanglement scale, the renormalisation of direct interactions by thermal…
In this research study, a numerical tool, which is based on a version of Slender Body theory, has been used and also modified to simulate the mechanical behaviour of single- and double-cross-linked biopolymer networks (hydrogel) under…
Live cells have ambiguous mechanical properties. They were often described as either elastic solids or viscoelastic fluids and have recently been classified as soft glassy materials characterized by weak power-law rheology. Nonlinear…
In this work, we have studied the viscoelastic behavior of chemically and physically crosslinked Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels near the critical gel point (GP) as well as further away from it, by means of small amplitude (SAOS) and…
We briefly review the recent advances in the rheology of entangled polymers and identify emerging research trends and outstanding challenges, especially with respect to branched polymers. Emphasis is placed on the role of well-characterized…
Entangled polymers are an important class of materials for their toughness, processability, and functionalizability. However, physically detailed modeling of highly entangled polymers can prove challenging, especially as one considers…
We present a Landau type theory for the non-linear elasticity of biopolymer gels with a part of the order parameter describing induced nematic order of fibers in the gel. We attribute the non-linear elastic behavior of these materials to…
Gels made of telechelic polymers connected by reversible crosslinkers are a versatile design platform for biocompatible viscoelastic materials. Their linear response to a step strain displays a fast, near-exponential relaxation when using…
Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are soft polymeric materials that exhibit complex rheological and mechanical behavior gov- erned by the interplay between polymer architecture, crosslink density, and entanglement constraints. Predicting…
Disordered networks of semiflexible filaments are common support structures in biology. Familiar examples include fibrous matrices in blood clots, bacterial biofilms, and essential components of cells and tissues of plants, animals, and…
Soft living tissues like cartilage can be considered as biphasic materials comprised of a fibrous complex biopolymer network and a viscous background liquid. Here, we show by a combination of experiment and theoretical analysis that both…
An experimental protocol is developed to directly measure the new material functions revealed by medium amplitude parallel superposition (MAPS) rheology. This experimental protocol measures the medium amplitude response of a material to a…
Recent experimental investigations have revealed a non-Maxwellian absorption pattern in the rheological spectra of actin gels, which was interpreted in terms of transient bonds. Here we examine the consequences of reversible crosslinking on…
The viscoelastic behavior of liquid polymers changes depending on the microstructure of the polymer chains. To investigate the unsteady structural changes induced by polymer chain morphology under stress, we develop a simple rheo-optical…