Dresden 2014 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 11: Posters: Cytoskeleton
BP 11.15: Poster
Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 09:30–12:30, P1
Elastic response of pre-stressed 3D filamentous networks with compliant crosslinks — •Knut Heidemann1, Meenakshi Prabhune2, Florian Rehfeldt2, Christoph Schmidt2, and Max Wardetzky1 — 1Institut für Numerische und Angewandte Mathematik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen — 2Drittes Physikalisches Institut - Biophysik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
The cytoskeleton of cells is a composite network of filaments ranging from stiff rod-like microtubules to semiflexible actin filaments that together play a crucial role for cell structure and mechanics. The collective dynamics of these cytoskeletal filaments with widely different mechanical properties yet remain to be understood completely.
To model a strongly heterogeneous composite, we set up 3D simulations of filamentous networks with compliant crosslinks, and extract elastic moduli via quasistatic deformations.
Furthermore, We introduce an affine theory that captures the simulation results correctly. In particular, we derive asymptotic exponents for the scaling of the differential modulus with stress in the limit of infinite crosslink densities. Numerical results for finite numbers of crosslinks are presented as well.
In addition, we analyze the effects of pre-stress, which is easily tunable in our simulations. It turns out that the initial normal stress can be related to the linear shear elastic modulus, and might therefore be of importance for experimental studies as well.