Hindrances to precise recovery of cellular forces in fibrous biopolymer networks.

How cells move through the three-dimensional extracellular matrix (ECM) is of increasing interest in attempts to understand important biological processes such as cancer metastasis. Just as in motion on flat surfaces, it is expected that experimental measurements of cell-generated forces will provide valuable information for uncovering the mechanisms of cell migration. However, the recovery of forces in fibrous biopolymer networks may suffer from large errors. Here, within the framework of lattice-based models, we explore possible issues in force recovery by solving the inverse problem: how can one determine the forces cells exert to their surroundings from the deformation of the ECM? Our results indicate that irregular cell traction patterns, the uncertainty of local fiber stiffness, the non-affine nature of ECM deformations and inadequate knowledge of network topology will all prevent the precise force determination. At the end, we discuss possible ways of overcoming these difficulties.

Three-dimensional to two-dimensional transition in mode-I fracture microbranching in a perturbed hexagonal close-packed lattice.

Mode-I fracture exhibits microbranching in the high velocity regime where the simple straight crack is unstable. For velocities below the instability, classic modeling using linear elasticity is valid. However, showing the existence of the instability and calculating the dynamics postinstability within the linear elastic framework is difficult and controversial. The experimental results give several indications that the microbranching phenomenon is basically a three-dimensional (3D) phenomenon. Nevertheless, the theoretical effort has been focused mostly on two-dimensional (2D) modeling. In this paper we study the microbranching instability using three-dimensional atomistic simulations, exploring the difference between the 2D and the 3D models. We find that the basic 3D fracture pattern shares similar behavior with the 2D case. Nevertheless, we exhibit a clear 3D-2D transition as the crack velocity increases, whereas as long as the microbranches are sufficiently small, the behavior is pure 3D behavior, whereas at large driving, as the size of the microbranches increases, more 2D-like behavior is exhibited. In addition, in 3D simulations, the quantitative features of the microbranches, separating the regimes of steady-state cracks (mirror) and postinstability (mist-hackle) are reproduced clearly, consistent with the experimental findings.

Microbranching in mode-I fracture using large-scale simulations of amorphous and perturbed-lattice models.

We study the high-velocity regime mode-I fracture instability wherein small microbranches start to appear near the main crack, using large-scale simulations. Some of the features of those microbranches have been reproduced qualitatively in smaller-scale studies [using O(10(4)) atoms] on both a model of an amorphous material (via the continuous random network model) and using perturbed-lattice models. In this study, larger-scale simulations [O(10(6)) atoms] were performed using multithreading computing on a GPU device, in order to achieve more physically realistic results. First, we find that the microbranching pattern appears to be converging with the lattice width. Second, the simulations reproduce the growth of the size of a microbranch as a function of the crack velocity, as well as the increase of the amplitude of the derivative of the electrical-resistance root-mean square with respect to the time as a function of the crack velocity. In addition, the simulations yield the correct branching angle of the microbranches, and the power law exponent governing the shape of the microbranches seems to be lower than unity, so that the side cracks turn over in the direction of propagation of the main crack as seen in experiment.

Microbranching in mode-I fracture in a randomly perturbed lattice.

We study mode-I fracture in lattices using atomistic simulations with randomly distributed bond lengths. By using a small parameter that measures the variation of the bond length between the atoms in perfect lattices and using a three-body force law, simulations reproduce the qualitative behavior of the beyond-steady-state cracks in the high-velocity regime, including reasonable microbranching. In particular, the effect of the lattice structure on the crack appears minimal, even though in terms of the physical properties such as the structure factor g(r) and the radial or angular distributions, these lattices share the physical properties of perfect lattices rather than those of an amorphous material (e.g., the continuous random network model). A clear transition can be seen between steady-state cracks, where a single crack propagates in the midline of the sample, and the regime of unstable cracks, where microbranches start to appear near the main crack, in line with previous experimental results. This is seen in both a honeycomb lattice and a fully hexagonal lattice. This model reproduces the main physical features of propagating cracks in brittle materials, including the total length of microbranches as a function of driving displacement and the increasing amplitude of oscillations of the electrical resistance. In addition, preliminary indications of power-law behavior of the microbranch shapes can be seen, potentially reproducing one of the most intriguing experimental results of brittle fracture. There was found to exist a critical degree of disorder, i.e., a sharp threshold between the cleaving behavior characterizing perfect lattices and the microbranching behavior that characterizes amorphous materials.

Propagating mode-I fracture in amorphous materials using the continuous random network model.

We study propagating mode-I fracture in two-dimensional amorphous materials using atomistic simulations. We use the continuous random network model of an amorphous material, creating samples using a two-dimensional analog of the Wooten-Winer-Weaire Monte Carlo algorithm. For modeling fracture, molecular-dynamics simulations were run on the resulting samples. The results of our simulations reproduce the main experimental features. In addition to achieving a steady-state crack under a constant driving displacement (which has not yet been achieved by other atomistic models for amorphous materials), the runs show microbranching, which increases with driving, transitioning to macrobranching for the largest drivings. In addition to the qualitative visual similarity of the simulated cracks to experiment, the simulation also succeeds in reproducing qualitatively the experimentally observed oscillations of the crack velocity.

Mode-I fracture in a nonlinear lattice with viscoelastic forces.

We study mode-I fracture in a viscoelastic lattice model with a nonlinear force law, with a focus on the velocity and linear stability of the steady-state propagating solution. This study is a continuation both of the study of the piecewise-linear model in mode I, and the study of more general nonlinear force laws in mode-III fracture. At small driving, there is a strong dependency of the velocity curve on the dissipation and a strong sensitivity to the smoothness of the force law at large dissipation. At large driving we calculate, via a linear stability analysis, the critical velocity for the onset of instability as a function of the smoothness, the dissipation and the ratio of lattice spacing to critical extension. This critical velocity is seen to be very sensitive to these parameters. We confirm our calculations via direct numerical simulations of the initial value problem.