Predictions of aneurysm formation in distensible tubes: Part B—Application and comparison of alternative approaches

Abstract

The theoretical treatise of the companion paper produced three distinct approaches of increasing complexity. Just as the presented theory is equally applicable to other medical, scientific or engineering applications, so the systematic numerical investigation now reported is relevant to these fields of study. An independently developed finite element analysis (FEA) solution is used to show that the commercial package selected provides critical pressure predictions of a consistent order of magnitude. The FEA sensitivity analysis considers five distinct elements with up to seven alternative strain-energy functions and different combinations of uniaxial, equi-biaxial and pure shear data sets to identify the effect on critical pressure prediction and overall behaviour of a pressurised distensible tube. This represents the most comprehensive comparative study available in the open literature. For a selected strain-energy function the impact of the variation of length to initial radius and wall thickness to initial radius are investigated. Thereafter it is demonstrated that these two ratios rather than actual dimensions are the driving factors behind pressurised tube behaviour.