Properties of elastic percolating networks in isotropic media with arbitrary elastic constants

The properties of diluted elastic media in two dimensions are investigated in an isotropic system in which the ratio between the two Lamé coefficients can be varied. Changes in the ratio between the continuum elastic constants induce significant variations in the behavior of the system away from the threshold for percolation, but not in the properties near the percolation transition. We discuss the results in both cases and their relevance to the definition of the universal properties of diluted elastic networks. It is shown that many features of interest, like the bulk modulus at intermediate concentrations of voids and the backbone, are very dependent on the microscopic details of the model, and not only on its macroscopic behavior. Thus, elastic percolation does not seem to have the same degree of universality as scalar percolation. © 1990 The American Physical Society.