Planar random networks with flexible fibers

TL;DR

This study investigates how the structure and surface roughness of random fiber networks change with coverage and fiber flexibility, revealing scale-free behaviors and decoupling phenomena in planar networks.

Contribution

It introduces a deposition model analyzing the transition from 2D to 3D structures in fiber networks, highlighting the effects of fiber flexibility and coverage.

Findings

Network geometry depends on scale-free product of fiber length and coverage at low coverage.

At high coverage, geometry depends on a scale-free combination of fiber flexibility, width, and thickness.

Surface roughness decreases exponentially with increasing fiber flexibility at high coverage.

Abstract

The transition in random fiber networks from two-dimensional to three-dimensional planar structure driven by increasing coverage (total fiber length per unit area) is studied with a deposition model. At low coverage the network geometry depends on the scale-free product of fiber length and coverage while at high coverage it depends on a scale-free combination of flexibility, width and thickness of the fibers. With increasing coverage the roughness of the free surface decouples from the substrate, faster when fibers are stiffer. In the high coverage region roughness decreases exponentially with increasing fiber flexibility.