Stiff Polymers, Foams and Fiber Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates the complex elastic behavior of fibrous networks made of stiff polymers, revealing instability in affine strain fields and uncovering unique mechanical properties through numerical and scaling analyses.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the elasticity of stiff polymer networks, highlighting the instability of affine strain fields and exploring their intermediate asymptotic scaling regimes.

Findings

Affine strain fields are generically unstable in fibrous networks.

Network architecture and polymer properties interplay creates unique mechanical behaviors.

Numerical and scaling methods reveal intermediate asymptotic regimes.

Abstract

We study the elasticity of fibrous materials composed of generalized stiff polymers. It is shown that in contrast to cellular foam-like structures affine strain fields are generically unstable. Instead, a subtle interplay between the architecture of the network and the elastic properties of its building blocks leads to intriguing mechanical properties with intermediate asymptotic scaling regimes. We present exhaustive numerical studies based on a finite element method complemented by scaling arguments.