An inverse approach for the mechanical characterization of vascular tissues via a generalized rule of mixtures

FACUNDO J. BELLOMO; SERGIO OLLER; LIZ G. NALLIM

COMPUTER METHODS IN BIOMECHANICS AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Lugar: Philadelphia; Año: 2012 vol. 15 p. 1257 - 1262

1025-5842

Mechanical factors such as stresses and strains play a major role in the growth and remodelling of soft biological tissues.The main constituents of tissue undergo different processes reacting to mechanical stimulus. Thereby, the characterisation ofgrowth and remodelling requires an accurate estimation of the stresses and strains of their main components. Many softtissues can be considered as composite materials and can be analysed using an appropriate rule of mixtures. Particularly,arterial tissue can be modelled as an isotropic soft matrix reinforced with preferentially oriented collagen fibres. An inverseapproach to obtain the mechanical characterisation of each main component is proposed in this work. The procedure is basedon a rule of mixtures raised in a finite deformation framework and generalised to include kinematics and compatibilityequations for serial?parallel behaviour. This methodology allows obtaining the stress?strain relationship of the componentsfitting experimental data.