Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 5: Posters: Biopolymers and Biomaterials
BP 5.16: Poster
Montag, 22. März 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1
Elasticity of Fiber Networks as Function of Crosslink Density — •Susan Sporer1, Mahyar Madadi2, Christoph Arns3, Klaus Mecke1, and Gerd E. Schröder-Turk1 — 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany — 2Applied Mathemathics, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia — 3School of Petroleum Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Crosslinkers determine the architecture of polymer networks and thus are of great importance for the resulting mechanical properties. A morphological model is proposed for investigating the change of the linear elastic response of 3D fiber networks when randomly disconnecting network nodes. The networks have a given volume fraction regulated by the radius of the fibers and are modeled as one body consisting of a homogeneous, locally isotropic, linear elastic material. The network nodes rigidly crosslinking fibers are randomly split into two locally unconnected fibers which causes a morphology change of the network. The effective shear modulus is studied using a voxel-based finite element method. Our results show an exponential decay of the shear modulus with decreasing number of crosslinking nodes without any signs of a percolation transition. By associating the fibers with polymer chains and all network nodes with junctions connected by a crosslinking molecule, this approach is a model for elasticity of biological networks with varying crosslinker density.