Experimental characterization of rupture in human aortic aneurysms using a full-field measurement technique

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating biomechanical failure behaviour of human aneurismal aortic tissues so as to diagnose the rupture risk of aneurysms more accurately. An inflation test is performed on aneurismal aortic tissues up to failure and full-field measurements are achieved using stereo digital image correlation. Then, an appropriate constitutive model derived from histological structure of arteries is adopted to retrieve the Cauchy stress. The virtual fields method is used as an inverse procedure to identify material parameters. Next, the Cauchy stress components are calculated from the identified parameters and the measured Lagrange strain fields. Finally, an important stress parameter which can quantify the strength of aneurismal tissues is derived from the failure stress of aneurismal tissues.