Nonlinear Viscoelasticity of Semiflexible Polymer Networks

Semiflexible polymers exhibit amazing nonlinear viscoelastic response, as a result of the competition between the bending resistance and the entropic fluctuation. Most analytical studies of semiflexible polymer networks focus on the affine deformation of permanent-crosslinked networks, while the non-affine deformation of the networks and the stress relaxation introduced by transient crosslinks remain poorly understood. In this talk, we present an analytical framework for the viscoelasticity of semiflexible polymer networks. Our model predicts the nonlinear viscoelastic modulus of transient-crosslinked networks, as well as the non-affine deformation of isotropic polymer networks.