Floppy modes and nonaffine deformations in random fiber networks

Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Sep 8;97(10):105501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.105501. Epub 2006 Sep 8.

Abstract

We study the elasticity of random fiber networks. Starting from a microscopic picture of the nonaffine deformation fields, we calculate the macroscopic elastic moduli both in a scaling theory and a self-consistent effective medium theory. By relating nonaffinity to the low-energy excitations of the network ("floppy modes"), we achieve a detailed characterization of the nonaffine deformations present in fibrous networks.