Large Deformation Analysis of Some Soft Biological Tissues

1981 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Demiray

Due to physiological structure of most of the soft biological tissues, measurable stresses develop after the specimen has been stretched to many hundreds of percent of its relaxed length. Therefore, the nonlinear stress-strain relations developed for vulcanized rubber cannot be applied to soft tissues, which are constitutionally much more nonlinear than other engineering materials. In this article, using two different elastic models proposed for elastic soft tissues, simple elongation of a cylindrical bar and the inflation of a spherical thick shell, which is deemed to be a model for a left venticle, are studied and the material coefficients characterizing the elastic model are obtained via comparing theoretical results with existing experiments on tissues. Furthermore, the elastic stiffnesses which are very important for physiologists and cardiologists are discussed and the consistency of the result with experiments are indicated.

1977 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-103
Author(s):  
Han-Chin Wu ◽  
R. Reiss

The stress response of soft biological tissues is investigated theoretically. The treatment follows the approach of Wu and Yao [1] and is now extended for a broad class of soft tissues. The theory accounts for the anisotropy due to the presence of fibers and also allows for the stretching of fibers under load. As an application of the theory, a precise form for the strain energy function is proposed. This form is then shown to describe the mechanical behavior of annulus fibrosus satisfactorily. The constants in the strain energy function have also been approximately determined from only a uniaxial tension test.


Author(s):  
Arturo N. Natali ◽  
Emanuele L. Carniel ◽  
Piero G. Pavan ◽  
Alessio Gasparetto ◽  
Franz G. Sander ◽  
...  

Soft biological tissues show a strongly non linear and time-dependent mechanical response and undergo large strains under physiological loads. The microstructural arrangement determines specific anisotropic macroscopic properties that must be considered within a constitutive formulation. The characterization of the mechanical behaviour of soft tissues entails the definition of constitutive models capable of accounting for geometric and material non linearity. In the model presented here a hyperelastic anisotropic formulation is adopted as the basis for the development of constitutive models for soft tissues and can be properly arranged for the investigation of viscous and damage phenomena as well to interpret significant aspects pertaining to ordinary and degenerative conditions. Visco-hyperelastic models are used to analyze the time-dependent mechanical response, while elasto-damage models account for the stiffness and strength decrease that can develop under significant loading or degenerative conditions. Experimental testing points out that damage response is affected by the strain rate associated with loading, showing a decrease in the damage limits as the strain rate increases. This phenomena can be investigated by means of a model capable of accounting for damage phenomena in relation to viscous effects. The visco-hyperelastic damage model developed is defined on the basis of a Helmholtz free energy function depending on the strain-damage history. In particular, a specific damage criterion is formulated in order to evaluate the influence of the strain rate on damage. The model can be implemented in a general purpose finite element code. This makes it possible to perform numerical analyses of the mechanical response considering time-dependent effects and damage phenomena. The experimental tests develop investigated tissue response for different strain rate conditions, accounting for stretch situations capable of inducing damage phenomena. The reliability of the formulation is evaluated by a comparison with the results of experimental tests performed on pig periodontal ligament.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mallika Sridhar ◽  
Jie Liu ◽  
Michael F. Insana

Viscoelastic properties of soft tissues and hydropolymers depend on the strength of molecular bonding forces connecting the polymer matrix and surrounding fluids. The basis for diagnostic imaging is that disease processes alter molecular-scale bonding in ways that vary the measurable stiffness and viscosity of the tissues. This paper reviews linear viscoelastic theory as applied to gelatin hydrogels for the purpose of formulating approaches to molecular-scale interpretation of elasticity imaging in soft biological tissues. Comparing measurements acquired under different geometries, we investigate the limitations of viscoelastic parameters acquired under various imaging conditions. Quasi-static (step-and-hold and low-frequency harmonic) stimuli applied to gels during creep and stress relaxation experiments in confined and unconfined geometries reveal continuous, bimodal distributions of respondance times. Within the linear range of responses, gelatin will behave more like a solid or fluid depending on the stimulus magnitude. Gelatin can be described statistically from a few parameters of low-order rheological models that form the basis of viscoelastic imaging. Unbiased estimates of imaging parameters are obtained only if creep data are acquired for greater than twice the highest retardance time constant and any steady-state viscous response has been eliminated. Elastic strain and retardance time images are found to provide the best combination of contrast and signal strength in gelatin. Retardance times indicate average behavior of fast (1–10s) fluid flows and slow (50–400s) matrix restructuring in response to the mechanical stimulus. Insofar as gelatin mimics other polymers, such as soft biological tissues, elasticity imaging can provide unique insights into complex structural and biochemical features of connectives tissues affected by disease.


Author(s):  
Roy Wang ◽  
Rudolph L. Gleason

Quantifying the mechanical behavior of very soft tissues (VST) is important when studying responses to injury or designing therapeutic devices; fat, brain, or liver being examples of such tissues. VST can have poor suture retention or clamp holding strength, making tensile tests difficult. As a result, uniaxial compression tests are typically the preferred choice to quantify the mechanical behavior. In these tests, isotropy is generally assumed and measuring the deformation in only one direction is needed if the material is considered incompressible [13]. In this study we present a novel testing apparatus for use on VST under uniaxial compression that can detect anisotropic behavior of the tissue if present. We validate the tester using cardiac adipose tissue and isotropic rubber as the control. Understanding the directional behavior of the tissue is important since anisotropy would require testing in multiple directions to fully characterize the material properties.


Author(s):  
Cornelius O. Horgan ◽  
Jeremiah G. Murphy

Shearing is induced in soft tissues in numerous physiological settings. The limited experimental data available suggest that a severe strain-stiffening effect occurs in the shear stress when soft biological tissues are subjected to simple shear in certain directions. This occurs at relatively small amounts of shear (when compared with the simple shear of rubbers). This effect is modelled within the framework of nonlinear elasticity by consideration of a class of incompressible anisotropic materials. Owing to the large stresses generated for relatively small amounts of shear, particular care must be exercised in order to maintain a homogeneous deformation state in the bulk of the specimen. The results obtained are relevant to the development of accurate shear test protocols for the determination of constitutive properties of soft tissues. It is also demonstrated that there is a fundamental ambiguity in determining the normal stresses in simple shear when soft tissues are modelled as incompressible hyperelastic materials owing to the arbitrary nature of the hydrostatic pressure term. Two physically well-motivated approaches to determining the pressure are presented here, and the resulting hydrostatic stresses are compared and contrasted. The possible generation of cavitational damage owing to critical hydrostatic stress levels is briefly discussed.


Author(s):  
Yuan Feng ◽  
Chung-Hao Lee ◽  
Lining Sun ◽  
Ruth J. Okamoto ◽  
Songbai Ji

Anisotropy exists in many soft biological tissues. The most common anisotropy is transverse isotropy, which is typical for fiber-reinforced structures, such as the brain white matter, tendon and muscle. Although many methods have been proposed to determine tissue properties, techniques to characterize transversely isotropic materials remain limited. The goal of this study is to investigate the feasibility of asymmetric indentation coupled with numerical optimization based on inverse finite element (FE) simulation to characterize transversely isotropic soft biological tissues. The proposed approach combining indentation and optimization may provide a useful general framework to characterize a variety of fiber-reinforced soft tissues in the future.


2015 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farshid Fathi ◽  
Shahrokh Shahi ◽  
Soheil Mohammadi

Extensive research has been performed in the past decades to study the behavior of soft biological tissues in order to reduce the need for practical experiments. The applicability of these researches, particularly for skin, ligament, muscles and the heart, brings up its importance in various biological science and technology disciplines such as surgery and medicine. Softness and large deformation govern the behavior of soft materials and prohibit the use of small strains solutions in finite element method.In this work, the focus is set on a strain energy function which has the advantage of accurately representing the behavior of a variety of soft tissues with only a few parameters in a finite element approach. The numerical results are verified with a set of tensile experiments to demonstrate the performance of the proposed model. The parameters include the matrix and collagen bundles and their orientation. Different cases are analyzed and discussed for better prediction of different soft tissue responses.  


1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. M. G. Dortmans ◽  
A. A. F. van de Ven ◽  
A. A. H. J. Sauren

For description of the visco-elastic behavior of soft biological tissues, Fung proposed a visco-elastic model formulated in terms of a relaxation function and corresponding relaxation spectrum. For the corresponding creep function, Fung proposed an expression which needs correction to obtain a consistent formulation. This creep function and the corresponding creep spectrum are derived in this note.


Author(s):  
C.A. Baechler ◽  
W. C. Pitchford ◽  
J. M. Riddle ◽  
C.B. Boyd ◽  
H. Kanagawa ◽  
...  

Preservation of the topographic ultrastructure of soft biological tissues for examination by scanning electron microscopy has been accomplished in the past by using lengthy epoxy infiltration techniques, or dehydration in ethanol or acetone followed by air drying. Since the former technique requires several days of preparation and the latter technique subjects the tissues to great stress during the phase change encountered during air-drying, an alternate rapid, economical, and reliable method of surface structure preservation was developed. Turnbill and Philpott had used a fluorocarbon for the critical point drying of soft tissues and indicated the advantages of working with fluids having both moderately low critical pressures as well as low critical temperatures. Freon-116 (duPont) which has a critical temperature of 19. 7 C and a critical pressure of 432 psi was used in this study.


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