Affine kinematics in planar fibrous connective tissues: an experimental investigation

The affine transformation hypothesis is usually adopted in order to link the tissue scale with the fibers scale in structural constitutive models of fibrous tissues. Thanks to the recent advances in imaging techniques, such as multiphoton microscopy, the microstructural behavior and kinematics of fibrous tissues can now be monitored at different stretching within the same sample. Therefore, the validity of the affine hypothesis can be investigated. In this paper, the fiber reorientation predicted by the affine assumption is compared to experimental data obtained during mechanical tests on skin and liver capsule coupled with microstructural imaging using multiphoton microscopy. The values of local strains and the collagen fibers orientation measured at increasing loading levels are used to compute a theoretical estimation of the affine reorientation of collagen fibers. The experimentally measured reorientation of collagen fibers during loading could not be successfully reproduced with this simple affine model. It suggests that other phenomena occur in the stretching process of planar fibrous connective tissues, which should be included in structural constitutive modeling approaches.