The project is aimed at obtaining novel, effective and reliable macroscopic mathematical models for soft matter, such as rubberlike, biological tissues, nematic elastomers and hydrogels. The idea is to account for all the relevant scales to capture their behavior.
Indeed, such media exhibit complex phenomena, like rate and damage effects, residual stretches, growth and remodeling. Soft matter is known to be sensitive to mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, chemical fields, as well as humidity. This is a consequence of breaking, healing, growth and remodeling arising at multiple scales. Previous studies on such behavior at lower scales came from the interaction between experimental and numerical techniques, like Molecular Dynamics, Montecarlo and Coarse Grained (CG) methods. A large effort was devoted to deducing macroscopic models. Rubberlike and biological materials are characterized by networks of macromolecules. Hence, Statistical Mechanics (SM) was used to account for the entropic character of the network elasticity. Further studies added on non-Gaussian, network, enthalpic and non-equilibrium effects, as well as changes of natural configurations. This led to a new impetus of cooperation between Continuum Mechanics (CM) and SM owing a new class of macroscopic models informed by the microscale.
In this same spirit the project features an interdisciplinary approach, involving mathematicians, engineers, and biologists with theoretical, numerical, and experimental expertise. Indeed, SM and CG will be intermingled with experimental skills.
The main goals, among others, are to study rate effects at molecular level, cell mechano-sensing/signaling, decohesion, together with microtubule damage in axon mechanics and DNA/RNA hairpin melting effects. This has an impact at a larger scale. For example, a key for aiming at the description of Parkinson and Alzheimer disease is the multiscale modeling, as proposed in the project, of the rate-dependent damage behavior of brain tissues. Another challenging issue finding here an interdisciplinary portfolio of available expertise is the modeling of the interactions of cells with biological tissues and membranes. Among others, the latter encompasses theoretical and experimental studies on cell switching, mechanotropism, membrane mediated ligand-receptor binding, growth, morphing and wrinkling. For the latter, new predictive formulations accounting for multiscale anisotropy and/or poroelasticity of biological media will be obtained. Furthermore, a new interdisciplinary approach for cells mechano-sensing will be proposed, supported by numerical analyses and innovative single cells experiments.
Important applications on new bioinspired materials are foreseen. Indeed, recently proposed models for the hygro-thermo-mechanical behavior of spider silks will be augmented to analyze artificial silks and propose new micro and nanoscale actuators and new protein bundles with high toughness properties.