Deformation and fracture of echinoderm collagen networks

M Ovaska and Z Bertalan and A Miksic and M Sugni and C Di Benedetto and C Ferrario and L Leggio and L Guidetti and MJ Alava and CAM La Porta and S Zapperi, JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS, 65, 42-52 (2017).

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2016.07.035

Collagen networks provide the main structural component of most tissues and represent an important ingredient for bio-mimetic materials for bio- medical applications. Here we study the mechanical properties of stiff collagen networks derived from three different echinoderms and show that they exhibit non-linear stiffening followed by brittle fracture. The disordered nature of the network leads to strong sample-to-sample fluctuations in elasticity and fracture strength. We perform numerical simulations of a three dimensional model for the deformation of a cross- linked elastic fibril network which is able to reproduce the macroscopic features of the experimental results and provide insights into the internal mechanics of stiff collagen networks. Our numerical model provides an avenue for the design of collagen membranes with tunable mechanical properties. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

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