Buckling of empty spherical viruses under external pressure

作者：Ru C Q^*

来源：Journal of Applied Physics, 2009, 105(12): 124701.

DOI：10.1063/1.3141753

Motivated by structural heterogeneity and thickness nonuniformity of protein shells (such as microtubules and viral capsids), a refined elastic shell model is suggested to study the effect of transverse shear and effective bending thickness on buckling of an empty spherical viral shell under external pressure. A key feature of the model is that the transverse shear modulus of viral shells is allowed to be much lower than the in-plane shear modulus, in accordance with the weak resistance of two-dimensional protein assemblies to transverse shear. The results show that the transverse shear-induced critical pressure drop could be as big as 50%-70% for smaller-radius viral shells when the transverse shear modulus is about one order of magnitude smaller than the in-plane shear modulus, although the effect of transverse shear is negligible if the transverse shear modulus is equal to or larger than the in-plane shear modulus. These results suggest that the classical homogeneous shell model widely used in the literature would overestimate the strength of viral shells against buckling under external pressure. The refined model suggested here could extend the applicability of homogeneous elastic shell models from larger-radius viral shells to small-radius ones.

• 出版日期2009-6-15