Inelastic mechanics of sticky biopolymer networks

Abstract

We propose a physical model for the nonlinear inelastic mechanics of sticky biopolymer networks with potential applications to inelastic cell mechanics. It consists in a minimal extension of the glassy wormlike chain (GWLC) model, which has recently been highly successful as a quantitative mathematical description of the viscoelastic properties of biopolymer networks and cells. To extend its scope to nonequilibrium situations, where the thermodynamic state variables may evolve dynamically, the GWLC is furnished with an explicit representation of the kinetics of breaking and reforming sticky bonds. In spite of its simplicity the model exhibits many experimentally established non-trivial features such as power-law rheology, stress stiffening, fluidization, and cyclic softening effects.

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Modeling semiflexible polymer networks
• The Role of Stickiness in the Rheology of Semiflexible Polymers
• Viscoelasticity of reversibly crosslinked networks of semiflexible polymers
• Stress relaxation through crosslink unbinding in cytoskeletal networks
• A minimal model for the inelastic mechanics of biopolymer networks and cells
• Universality in the morphology and mechanics of coarsening amyloid fibril networks
• Cooperative crosslink (un)binding in slowly driven bundles of semiflexible filaments
• Fluctuations and differential contraction during regeneration of Hydra vulgaris tissue toroids
• Rheology of fractal networks
• Crosslinked biopolymer bundles: crosslink reversibility leads to cooperative binding/unbinding phenomena