Twist-to-bend ratio: an important selective factor for many rod-shaped biological structures.

ABSTRACT: Mechanical optimisation plays a key role in living beings either as an immediate response of individuals or as an evolutionary adaptation of populations to changing environmental conditions. Since biological structures are the result of multifunctional evolutionary constraints, the dimensionless twist-to-bend ratio is particularly meaningful because it provides information about the ratio of flexural rigidity to torsional rigidity determined by both material properties (bending and shear modulus) and morphometric parameters (axial and polar second moment of area). The determination of the mutual contributions of material properties and structural arrangements (geometry) or their ontogenetic alteration to the overall mechanical functionality of biological structures is difficult. Numerical

SUBMITTER: Wolff-Vorbeck S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6868162 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature