Mechanics of soft fibrous mats with inter-fiber adhesion and friction

Many soft materials of biological and industrial interest are composed from nanofibers and take the form of quasi-two-dimensional mats with stochastic structure. Examples include membranes in the human and animal bodies, geotextiles, non-wovens used in consumer products and tissue scaffolds. We investigate the mechanical behavior of such structures, which is largely controlled by geometry and adhesive and frictional interactions of constituent fibers. We consider two cases: one in which the fibrous mat is stabilized by adhesion, and the other in which fibers interact only frictionally. Both systems exhibit rich non-linear mechanics. We determine the scaling of material properties with the intensity of adhesion, and describe the interplay between frictional interactions and geometry in defining the mechanics of the mat. Stress is these systems is primarily associated with dissipation and exhibits interesting dependence on the network architecture.
V. Negi, R.C. Picu, Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 5951