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Free vibration analysis of microtubules based on the molecular mechanics and continuum beam theory

Chengyuan Wang Orcid Logo

Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology

Swansea University Author: Chengyuan Wang Orcid Logo

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Abstract

A molecular structural mechanics (MSM) method has been implemented to investigate the free vibration of microtubules (MTs). The emphasis is placed on the effects of the configuration and the imperfect boundaries of MTs. It is shown that the influence of protofilament number on the fundamental freque...

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Published in: Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology
ISSN: 1617-7940
Published: 2015
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa28838
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Abstract: A molecular structural mechanics (MSM) method has been implemented to investigate the free vibration of microtubules (MTs). The emphasis is placed on the effects of the configuration and the imperfect boundaries of MTs. It is shown that the influence of protofilament number on the fundamental frequency is strong, while the effect of helix-start number is almost negligible. The fundamental frequency is also found to decrease as the number of the blocked filaments at boundaries decreases. Subsequently, the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory is employed to reveal the physics behind the simulation results. Fitting the Euler–Bernoulli beam into the MSM data leads to an explicit formula for the fundamental frequency of MTs with various configurations and identifies a possible correlation between the imperfect boundary conditions and the length-dependent bending stiffness of MTs reported in experiments
Keywords: Microtubules – Free vibration – Molecular mechanics – Continuum mechanics
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering