A structural constitutive model for chemically treated planar tissues under biaxial loading

Abstract

Chemically treated, biologically derived soft collagenous tissues are used extensively in medical devices. To enable prosthesis design through computational methods, physically realistic constitutive models are required. In the present study, a structural approach was utilized that incorporated experimentally measured angular distribution of collagen fibers. Using biaxial mechanical data from our previous study (Annals of Biomedical Engineering, vol. 26(5), pp. 892–902, 1998), the effective fiber and matrix stress–strain responses were predicted. The agreement with the experimental data supported the assumption that the mechanical effects of chemical treatment are equivalent to the addition of an isotropic elastic matrix. An important utility of this model is its ability to separate the effects of chemical treatment on the fibers and matrix. Applications of this approach include utilization in the design of novel chemical treatments that produce specific mechanical responses, the study of fatigue damage, and finite element implementation for tissue engineering scaffold design.