Computational study of the geometric properties governing the linear mechanical behavior of fiber networks

Kermani, Iman Davoodi; Schmitter, Maximilian; Eichinger, Jonas F.; Aydin, Roland C.; Cyron, Christian J.

doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2021.110711

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“… 2018 ), are known to affect the network response (Islam and Picu 2018 ; Davoodi Kermani et al. 2021 ). Moreover, non-affine continuum mechanical approaches have been proposed to model fibre network materials (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risky interpretations across the length scales: continuum vs. discrete models for soft tissue mechanobiology

Stracuzzi

Britt

Mazza

et al. 2022

Biomech Model Mechanobiol

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Modelling and simulation in mechanobiology play an increasingly important role to unravel the complex mechanisms that allow resident cells to sense and respond to mechanical cues. Many of the in vivo mechanical loads occur on the tissue length scale, thus raising the essential question how the resulting macroscopic strains and stresses are transferred across the scales down to the cellular and subcellular levels. Since cells anchor to the collagen fibres within the extracellular matrix, the reliable representation of fibre deformation is a prerequisite for models that aim at linking tissue biomechanics and cell mechanobiology. In this paper, we consider the two-scale mechanical response of an affine structural model as an example of a continuum mechanical approach and compare it with the results of a discrete fibre network model. In particular, we shed light on the crucially different mechanical properties of the ‘fibres’ in these two approaches. While assessing the capability of the affine structural approach to capture the fibre kinematics in real tissues is beyond the scope of our study, our results clearly show that neither the macroscopic tissue response nor the microscopic fibre orientation statistics can clarify the question of affinity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risky interpretations across the length scales: continuum vs. discrete models for soft tissue mechanobiology

Stracuzzi

Britt

Mazza

et al. 2022

Biomech Model Mechanobiol

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“…Over the past two decades, extensive research into the rigidity of networks of biopolymers has revealed mechanical phase transitions, different mechanical regimes, and novel non-linear mechanical features. [24,[29][30][31][32][33] Here, we use a combination of in vitro experiments, utilizing human blood plasma samples, and theoretical modeling to probe the structural and biomechanical mechanisms underlying the rupture resistance of fibrin clots as a function of fibrin(ogen) concentration. Both for the basic science and potential clinical implications, studying blood clotting at various fibrinogen concentrations provides a means to establish fundamental relations between the content of fibrin in a clot and its structure and mechanical stability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomechanics, Energetics, and Structural Basis of Rupture of Fibrin Networks

Ramanujam,

Maksudov,

Litvinov

et al. 2023

Adv Healthcare Materials

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Fibrin provides the main structural integrity and mechanical strength to blood clots. Failure of fibrin clots can result in life‐threating complications, such as stroke or pulmonary embolism. The dependence of rupture resistance of fibrin networks (uncracked and cracked) on fibrin(ogen) concentrations in the (patho)physiological 1–5 g/l range was explored by performing the ultrastructural studies and theoretical analysis of the experimental stress‐strain profiles available from mechanical tensile loading assays. Fibrin fibers in the uncracked network stretched evenly, whereas in the cracked network, fibers around the crack tip showed greater deformation. Unlike fibrin fibers in cracked networks formed at the lower 1–2.7 g/l fibrinogen concentrations, fibers formed at the higher 2.7‐5 g/l concentrations align and stretch simultaneously. Cracked fibrin networks formed in higher fibrinogen solutions are tougher, yet, less extensible. Statistical modeling revealed that the characteristic strain for fiber alignment, crack size, and fracture toughness of fibrin networks control their rupture resistance. The results obtained provide a structural and biomechanical basis to quantitatively understand the material properties of blood plasma clots and to illuminate the mechanisms of their rupture.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

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“…Our computational framework generates random fiber networks whose geometric characteristics resemble those of actual collagen type I gels, that is, they exhibit a similar distribution of valency, free-fiber length, and orientation correlation (direction cosine) between adjacent fibers. These microstructural characteristics have been shown to be the primary determinants of the mechanical properties of fiber networks (Davoodi-Kermani et al, 2021). To model the mechanics of the collagen fibers in the network, our framework discretizes these fibers with geometrically exact nonlinear beam finite elements, which were shown in Section 3 to reproduce the elastic properties of collagen fiber networks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 A). Following Lindström et al (2010) and Davoodi-Kermani et al (2021), we assumed that the mechanical properties of collagen fiber networks are predominantly governed by three descriptors, namely, the valency (number of fibers connected to a network node), the free-fiber lengths between adjacent nodes (herein also referred to as fiber length), and the angles between the fibers joining at the nodes (which can be quantified by the cosine of the angles between any pair of fibers joining at a node). These descriptors vary in the network across the fibers and nodes by following certain statistical distributions.…”

Section: Construction Of Representative Volume Elements (Rve)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A computational framework for modeling cell-matrix interactions in soft biological tissues

Eichinger,

Grill,

Kermani

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Living soft tissues appear to promote the development and maintenance of a preferred mechanical state within a defined tolerance around a so-called setpoint. This phenomenon is often referred to as mechanical homeostasis. In contradiction to the prominent role of mechanical homeostasis in various (patho)physiological processes, its underlying micromechanical mechanisms acting on the level of individual cells and fibers remain poorly understood, especially, how these mechanisms on the microscale lead to what we macroscopically call mechanical homeostasis. Here, we present a novel finite element based computational framework that is constructed bottom up, that is, it models key mechanobiological mechanisms such as actin cytoskeleton contraction and molecular clutch behavior of individual cells interacting with a reconstructed threedimensional extracellular fiber matrix. The framework reproduces many experimental observations regarding mechanical homeostasis on short time scales (hours), in which the deposition and degradation of extracellular

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Computational study of the geometric properties governing the linear mechanical behavior of fiber networks

Cited by 12 publications

References 57 publications

Risky interpretations across the length scales: continuum vs. discrete models for soft tissue mechanobiology

Risky interpretations across the length scales: continuum vs. discrete models for soft tissue mechanobiology

Biomechanics, Energetics, and Structural Basis of Rupture of Fibrin Networks

A computational framework for modeling cell-matrix interactions in soft biological tissues

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