Combining displacement field and grip force information to determine mechanical properties of planar tissue with complicated geometry.

ABSTRACT: Performing planar biaxial testing and using nominal stress-strain curves for soft-tissue characterization is most suitable when (1) the test produces homogeneous strain fields, (2) fibers are aligned with the coordinate axes, and (3) strains are measured far from boundaries. Some tissue types [such as lamellae of the annulus fibrosus (AF)] may not allow for these conditions to be met due to their natural geometry and constitution. The objective of this work was to develop and test a method utilizing a surface displacement field, grip force-stretch data, and finite-element (FE) modeling to facilitate analysis of such complex samples. We evaluated the method by regressing a simple structural model to simulated and experimental data. Three different tissues with different characteristics were

SUBMITTER: Nagel TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4307772 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature