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A formulation to model the nonlinear viscoelastic properties of the vascular tissue

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Abstract

Nearly all soft tissues, including the vascular tissue, present a certain degree of viscoelastic material response, which becomes apparent performing multiple relaxation tests over a wide range of strain levels and plotting the resulting stress relaxation curves, nonlinear viscoelasticity of the tissue. Changes in relaxation rate at each strain may occur at multiple strain levels. A constitutive formulation considering the particular features of the vascular tissue, such as anisotropy, together with these nonlinear viscoelastic phenomena is here presented and used to fit stress–stretch curves from experimental relaxation tests. This constitutive model was used to fit several data set of in vitro experimental stress relaxation tests performed on ovine and porcine aorta. The good fitting of the experimental data shows the capability of the model to reproduce the viscoelastic response of the vascular tissue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    J. A. Peña

  2. Group of Structural Mechanics and Materials Modeling, Aragón Institute of Engineering Research, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    M. A. Martínez & E. Peña

  3. CIBER de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Aragón Health Sciences Institute, Zaragoza, Spain

    M. A. Martínez & E. Peña

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  1. J. A. Peña
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Peña, J.A., Martínez, M.A. & Peña, E. A formulation to model the nonlinear viscoelastic properties of the vascular tissue. Acta Mech 217, 63–74 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00707-010-0378-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00707-010-0378-6

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