Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tzmfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T22:04:51.899Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Model for Nonlinear Viscoelastic Mechanical Responses of Collagenous Soft Tissues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Michelle Oyen
Michelle Oyen*
Affiliation:
MichelleLOyen@aol.com, University of Virginia, 1011 Linden Ave, Charlottesville, Virginia, 22902, United States
Get access

Abstract

Experimental observations of the time-dependent mechanical responses of collagenous tissues have demonstrated behavior that deviates from standard treatments of linear or quasi-linear viscoelasticity. In particular, time-dependent deformation can be strongly coupled to strain level, and strain-rate independence can be observed under monotonic loading, even for a tissue with dramatic stress relaxation. It was postulated that this nonlinearity is fundamentally associated with gradual recruitment of individual collagen fibrils during applied mechanical loading. Based on previously observed experimental results for the time-dependent response of collagenous soft tissues, a model is developed to describe the mechanical behavior of these tissues under uniaxial loading. Tissue stresses, under applied strain-controlled loading, are assumed to be a sum of elastic and viscoelastic stress contributions. The relative contributions of elastic and viscoelastic stresses is assumed to vary with strain level, leading to strain- and time-dependent mechanical behavior. The model formulation is examined under conditions of monotonic loading at varying constant strain rates and stress-relaxation at different applied strain levels. The model is compared with experimental data for a membranous biological soft tissue, the amniotic sac, and is found to agree well with experimental results. The limiting behavior of the novel model, at large strains relative to the collagen recruitment, is consistent with the quasi-linear viscoelastic approach.

Keywords

biologicalmicrostructurestress/strain relationship
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 898: Symposium L – Mechanical Behavior of Biological and Biomimetic Materials , 2005 , 0898-L05-16
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1. Fung, YC, Biomechanics: Mechanical Properties of Living Tissues, 2nd edition, (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1993).Google Scholar
2. Mow, VC and Huiskes, R, eds. Basic Orthopaedic Biomechanics and Mechanobiology, 3rd edition, (Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia, 2005).Google Scholar
3. Oyen, ML, Cook, RF, and Calvin, SE, J Mater Sci: Mater Med, 15, 651 (2004).Google Scholar
4. Wren, TAL and Carter, DR, J. Biomech Eng 120, 55 (1998).Google Scholar
5. Lanir, Y, J Biomech 12, 423 (1979).Google Scholar
6. Belkoff, SM and Haut, RC, J Biomech 24, 711 (1991).Google Scholar
7. Frisen, M, Magi, M, Sonnerup, L, Viidik, A, J Biomech 2, 13 (1969).Google Scholar
8. Oyen, ML, Cook, RF, Stylianopoulos, T, Barocas, VH, Calvin, SE and Landers, DV, J. Mater Res 20, 2092 (2005).Google Scholar
9. Oyen, ML, Calvin, SE, and Cook, RF, J Mater Sci: Mater Med, 15, 619 (2004).Google Scholar
10. Dunn, M.G. and Silver, F.H. Connective Tissue Research 12, 59 (1983).Google Scholar
11. Haut, RC, Little, RW, J Biomech 5, 423 (1972).Google Scholar
12. Oyen, ML, Stylianopoulos, T, Calvin, SE, Landers, DV, and Barocas, VH, Proc. ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference (2005).Google Scholar