Nonlinear mechanics of soft fibre networks
A. Kabla and L. Mahadevan
Journal of the Royal Society Interface 4(12):99–106 (2007), doi:10.1098/rsif.2006.0151
Abstract
Mechanical networks of fibres arise on a range of scales in nature and technology, from the cytoskeleton of a cell to blood clots, from textiles and felts to skin and collageneous tissues. Their collective response is dependent on the individual response of the constituent filaments as well as the density and topology and order in the network. Here we use the example of a low density synthetic felt of athermal filaments to study the generic features of the mechanical response of such networks including strain stiffening and negative normal stress effects. A simple microscopic model allows us to explain these features of our observations, and provides us with a baseline framework to understand active biomechanical networks.