Stress heterogeneities in sheared type-I collagen networks revealed by Boundary Stress Microscopy.

Disordered fiber networks provide structural support to a wide range of important materials, and the combination of spatial and dynamic complexity may produce large inhomogeneities in mechanical properties, an effect that is largely unexplored experimentally. In this work, we introduce Boundary Stress Microscopy to quantify the non-uniform surface stresses in sheared collagen gels. We find local stresses exceeding average stresses by an order of magnitude, with variations over length scales much larger than the network mesh size. The strain stiffening behavior observed over a wide range of network mesh sizes can be parameterized by a single characteristic strain and associated stress, which describes both the strain stiffening regime and network yielding. The characteristic stress is approximately proportional to network density, but the peak boundary stress at both the characteristic strain and at yielding are remarkably insensitive to concentration.

Development of a confocal rheometer for soft and biological materials.

We discuss the design and operation of a confocal rheometer, formed by integrating an Anton Paar MCR301 stress-controlled rheometer with a Leica SP5 laser scanning confocal microscope. Combining two commercial instruments results in a system which is straightforward to assemble that preserves the performance of each component with virtually no impact on the precision of either device. The instruments are configured so that the microscope can acquire time-resolved, three-dimensional volumes of a sample whose bulk viscoelastic properties are being measured simultaneously. We describe several aspects of the design and, to demonstrate the system's capabilities, present the results of a few common measurements in the study of soft materials.

Size-dependent rheology of type-I collagen networks.

We investigate the system size-dependent rheological response of branched type I collagen gels. When subjected to a shear strain, the highly interconnected mesh dynamically reorients, resulting in overall stiffening of the network. When a continuous shear strain is applied to a collagen network, we observe that the local apparent modulus, in the strain-stiffening regime, is strongly dependent on the gel thickness. In addition, we demonstrate that the overall network failure is determined by the ratio of the gel thickness to the mesh size. These findings have broad implications for cell-matrix interactions, the interpretation of rheological tissue data, and the engineering of biomimetic scaffolds.