Elasticity of Stiff Polymer Networks

2003/03/27 by Jan Wilhelm, Erwin Frey · 9 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Material Dynamics and Properties #Polymer crystallization and properties #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.soft

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.91.108103

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 108103 (2003) · 4 pages, 4 figures

arxiv created 2003/03/27 · openalex publication_date 2003/09/05 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We study the elasticity of a two-dimensional random network of rigid rods ("Mikado model"). The essential features incorporated into the model are the anisotropic elasticity of the rods and the random geometry of the network. We show that there are three distinct scaling regimes, characterized by two distinct length scales on the elastic backbone. In addition to a critical rigidity percolation region and a homogeneously elastic regime we find a novel intermediate scaling regime, where the elasticity is dominated by bending deformations.

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