1.
Phys Rev Lett
; 95(17): 178102, 2005 Oct 21.
Artigo
em Inglês
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-16383874
RESUMO
Strain stiffening of filamentous protein networks is explored by means of a finite strain analysis of a two-dimensional network model of cross-linked semiflexible filaments. The results show that stiffening is caused by nonaffine network rearrangements that govern a transition from a bending-dominated response at small strains to a stretching-dominated response at large strains. Filament undulations, which are key in the existing explanation of stiffening, merely postpone the transition.