Microstructure and mechanical behavior of cross-linked biopolymer networks
PhD ceremony: | Mr G. Zagar |
When: | January 17, 2014 |
Start: | 12:45 |
Supervisors: | prof. dr. ir. E. (Erik) van der Giessen, prof. dr. ir. P.R. (Patrick) Onck |
Where: | Academy building RUG |
Faculty: | Science and Engineering |
A random fibre network is an ubiquitous microstructure in many
materials, ranging from metallic open cell foams through felts,
paper and rubbers to the scaffolds of biopolymer filaments in soft
tissue and the cell cytoskeleton. While the mechanical behavior of
these materials evidently depends on the constituents, the
underlying network microstructure is particularly important at
large strains. Numerous rheological experiments have shown that
random fibre networks of in vitro reconstituted biopolymer networks
exhibit strong nonlinear elastic strain-stiffening accompanied with
an increase of the shear modulus up to three orders of magnitude.
Several synthetic polymer network systems show a similar
phenomenology as biopolymer networks, albeit with a much weaker
increase of the modulus up to a factor of ~2.
The strain-stiffening in biopolymer networks is, generally,
attributed to the properties of the fibres, the cross-links that
mediate the inter-fibre force transmission and the network
microstructure. Despite much research in the recent past, the
mechanical properties of biopolymer networks still hold many
mysteries. The conjecture in this thesis is that they are mostly
hidden in the network microstructure. Extensive computer
simulations have provide a deep insight in the relationship between
microstructure and mechanical properties of biophysical networks.
This understanding has provided a unified explanation of stiffening
in a wide range of biophysical network materials.