Floral and fractal biomembrane ruptures and corresponding peridynamic model simulations.

<p>(a-c) Confocal micrographs of a floral rupture occurring in the distal bilayer of a DLBM. Yellow arrow heads indicate threads of lipids between two layers, which are the pinned regions. (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0165947#pone.0165947.s003" target="_blank">S1 Movie</a>) (d-f) Peridynamic simulations showing floral ruptures (G = 0 MPa). The ruptures nucleate at the pre-determined locations of pinned (fixed) particles, and then merge into one large floral pore. The pinning points (n = 6) are marked with red circles in (d). Black arrow heads show threads of points remain between two layers which correspond to the pinned regions, similar to (c). (g-i) Confocal micrographs showing small circular pores opening and progressing in the distal bilayer. (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0165947#pone.0165947.s004" target="_blank">S2 Movie</a>) (j-l) Peridynamic simulations showing circular pores opening over time. Shear modulus G is 0 MPa as in (a-f), with the number of pinning points increased (n = 17). (m-o) Confocal micrographs of fractal ruptures occurring in the distal bilayer. (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0165947#pone.0165947.s005" target="_blank">S3 Movie</a>) (p-r) Peridynamic simulations showing fractal ruptures (G = 5 MPa). The number and location of pinning points are the same as in (g-l). The color bar in f applies to all simulations in Fig 3 and shows the amount of material point damage (%) where 100% damage corresponds to a complete breaking of all bonds associated with the material point. The scale bar in (e) applies to all simulations in Fig 3. The ratio of the diameter of the expanded membrane to the initial diameter (D/D₀) is shown below each snapshot of the simulations.