Effect of curvature and thickness on elastic wave velocity in cornea-like structures by FEM and OCE

Abstract

Wave models, which have been utilized in the past to reconstruct corneal biomechanical properties based on the propagation of an elastic wave, were often developed assuming a thin-plate geometry. However, the curvature and thickness of the cornea are not considered when utilizing these models. In this work, optical coherence elastography (OCE) experiments were conducted on tissue-mimicking agar phantoms and contact lenses along with finite element (FE) modeling of four kinds of cornea-like structures to understand the effects of curvature and thickness on the group velocity of an elastic wave. As the radius of curvature increased from 19.1 to 47.7 mm, the group velocity of the elastic wave obtained by both FE and OCE from a spherical shell section model decreased from ~2.8 m/s to ~2.2 m/s. When the thickness of the agar phantom increased from 1.9 mm to 5.6 mm, the elastic wave velocity increased from ~3.0 m/s to ~4.1 m/s. Both the FE and OCE results show that the group velocity of the elastic wave decreased with radius of curvature but increased with thickness. Therefore, the curvature and thickness must be considered when developing accurate wave models for quantifying biomechanical properties of the cornea.