Fracture toughness of fibrin gels as a function of protein volume fraction: Mechanical origins.

ABSTRACT: The mechanical stability of blood clots necessary for their functions is provided by fibrin, a fibrous gel. Rupture of clots leads to life-threatening thrombotic embolization, which is little understood. Here, we combine experiments and simulations to determine the toughness of plasma clots as a function of fibrin content and correlate toughness with fibrin network structure characterized by confocal and scanning electron microscopy. We develop fibrin constitutive laws that scale with fibrin concentration and capture the force-stretch response of cracked clot specimens using only a few material parameters. Toughness is calculated from the path-independent J^* integral that includes dissipative effects due to fluid flow and uses only the constitutive model and overall stretch at c

SUBMITTER: Garyfallogiannis K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11824895 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature