Figure 4.

Dissipation of stress through buildup and turnover of forces on network-spanning pathways. (A) Snapshots of a network with n = 0.1 and σ = 10 Pa at t = 30, 60, and 90 s during the creep response. The top row shows network spanning (or percolating) pathways (yellow) in the network comprising actins (cyan) and ACPs (red). The bottom row shows the distribution of tensions with the color scale. (B–D) Analysis of force distribution and turnover across network filaments for simulations with n = 0.01 (red solid line), 0.03 (green dashed line), 0.1 (blue dotted line), and 0.3 (cyan dash-dotted line). (B) Distribution of relative tension across all filaments at one time point, defined as per-filament tension, F, divided by 50 pN, where 50 pN corresponds to a network-level stress of 10 Pa applied to one end of the reference computational domain. Large tensions are exerted by a very small fraction of the filaments. (C) Distribution of changes in relative F (ΔF/50 pN) occurring every 5 s, i.e., ΔF(t) = F(t) − F(t − 5). (D) Autocorrelation function of F, R(τ) versus τ, defined in Eq. 7. The black solid line corresponds to a case with σ = 0.2 Pa and n = 0.1. To see this figure in color, go online.