Homogenization of heterogeneous brain tissue under quasi-static loading: a visco-hyperelastic model of a 3D RVE

Researches, in the recent years, reveal the utmost importance of brain tissue assessment regarding its mechanical properties, especially for automatic robotic tools, surgical robots and helmet producing. For this reason, experimental and computational investigation of the brain behavior under different conditions seems crucial. However, experiments do not normally show the distribution of stress and injury in microscopic scale, and due to various factors are costly. Development of micromechanical methods, which could predict the brain behavior more appropriately, could highly be helpful in reducing these costs. This study presents computational analysis of heterogeneous part of the brain tissue under quasi-static loading. Heterogeneity is created by irregular distribution of neurons in a representative volume element (RVE). Considering time-dependent behavior of the tissue, a visco-hyperelastic constitutive model is developed to predict the RVE behavior more realistically. The RVE is studied in different loads and load rates; 1, 2, 3, 10 and 15% strain load are applied at 0.03 and 0.2 s on the RVE as tensile and shear loads. Due to complexity in geometry, self-consistent approximation method is employed to increase the volume fraction of neurons and analyze RVE behavior in various NVFs. The results show increasing the load rate leads to a raise in the maximum stress that indicates the tissue is more vulnerable at higher rates. Moreover, stiffness of the tissue is enhanced in higher NVFs. Additionally, it is found that axons undergo higher stresses; hence, they are more sensitive in accidents which lead to axonal death and would cause TBI and DAI.