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Multi-layer composite mechanical modeling for the inhomogeneous biofilm mechanical behavior

School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics (LNM), Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 15, Bei Si Huan Xi Lu, Beijing 100190, China

E-mail Address: xiaoling@me.ustb.edu.cn

Corresponding author.

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Jingshi Han

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0604-5704

School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China

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Kui Li

School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China

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Guoqing Wang

School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China

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, and

Mudong Hao

School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219720016500141Cited by:3 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

Experiments showed that bacterial biofilms are heterogeneous, for example, the density, the diffusion coefficient, and mechanical properties of the biofilm are different along the biofilm thickness. In this paper, we establish a multi-layer composite model to describe the biofilm mechanical inhomogeneity based on unified multiple-component cellular automaton (UMCCA) model. By using our model, we develop finite element simulation procedure for biofilm tension experiment. The failure limit and biofilm extension displacement obtained from our model agree well with experimental measurements. This method provides an alternative theory to study the mechanical inhomogeneity in biological materials.

Keywords:

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