Related papers: Elasticity from the Force Network Ensemble in Gran…
Experiments have shown that elasticity of disordered filamentous networks with compliant crosslinks is very different from networks with rigid crosslinks. Here, we model and analyze filamentous networks as a collection of randomly oriented…
A simple analytical model of intergranular normal stresses is proposed for a general elastic polycrystalline material with arbitrary shaped and randomly oriented grains under uniform loading. The model provides algebraic expressions for the…
Disordered spring networks are a useful paradigm to examine macroscopic mechanical properties of amorphous materials. Here, we study the elastic behavior of under-constrained spring networks, i.e.\ networks with more degrees of freedom than…
Networks of elastic fibers are ubiquitous in biological systems and often provide mechanical stability to cells and tissues. Fiber reinforced materials are also common in technology. An important characteristic of such materials is their…
Granular materials are involved in most industrial and environmental processes, as well as many civil engineering applications. Although significant advances have been made in understanding the statics and dynamics of cohesionless grains…
A long-standing issue in the area of granular media is the tail of the force distribution, in particular whether this is exponential, Gaussian, or even some other form. Here we resolve the issue for the case of the force network ensemble in…
Dense granular materials and other particle aggregates transmit stress in a manner that belies their microstructural disorder. A subset of the particle contact network is strikingly coherent, wherein contacts are aligned nearly linearly and…
We introduce novel sets of measures with the goal of describing dynamical properties of force networks in dense particulate systems. The presented approach is based on persistent homology and allows for extracting precise, quantitative…
The force network of a granular assembly, defined by the contact network and the corresponding contact forces, carries valuable information about the state of the packing. Simple analysis of these networks based on the distribution of force…
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…
We use nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations to verify recent tube-model predictions that associative polymer networks exhibit broad stretch fluctuations during elongational flow. Simulations further show that these fluctuating…
Stress paths in granular matter often suffer sudden large-scale rearrangements when the system is slightly perturbed, i.e. granular systems are unstable. We show in this paper that the observed instability is due to the minimally rigid, or…
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…
Force fluctuations in granular materials are investigated. A continuum equation is derived starting from a discrete model proposed in the literature. The influence of boundary conditions is investigated. For periodic boundary conditions the…
The past decade has witnessed the development and success of coarse-grained network models of proteins for predicting many equilibrium properties related to collective modes of motion. Curiously, the results are usually robust towards the…
We investigate the stress response function of a layer of grains, i.e. the stress profile in response to a localized overload. The shape of the profile is very sensitive to the packing arrangement, and is thus a good signature of the…
Developing quantitative methods for characterizing structural properties of force chains in densely packed granular media is an important step toward understanding or predicting large-scale physical properties of a packing. A promising…
We numerically study the static structure and the mechanical response of two-dimensional granular piles. The piles consist of polydisperse disks with and without friction. Special attention is paid for the rigid grain limit by examining the…
Granular creep is the slow, sub-yield movement of constituents in a granular packing due to the disordered nature of its grain-scale interactions. Despite the ubiquity of creep in disordered materials, it is still not understood how to best…
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…