A stress-strain relation for a rat abdominal aorta

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Mechanics
• Cardiovascular Research

Background:

• Arterial walls are complex biological tissues with unique mechanical properties.
• Understanding the stress-strain relationship in arteries is crucial for diagnosing and treating cardiovascular diseases.
• Previous models often simplify arterial wall properties, limiting their predictive accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a constitutive model for the rat abdominal aorta.
• To analyze the biomechanical response of the aorta under simultaneous inflation and axial stretch.
• To determine material coefficients by comparing theoretical predictions with experimental data.

Main Methods:

• Assumed arterial wall properties: homogeneous, incompressible, isotropic, and elastic.
• Solved the problem of simultaneous inflation and axial stretch under physiological loading.
• Determined material coefficients by fitting theoretical results to experimental data.

Main Results:

• A stress-strain relation for the rat abdominal aorta was established.
• The model demonstrated a maximum deviation of 3.7% from experimental results across various pressure levels.
• Circumferential stress and incremental pressure modulus variations with inner pressure were analyzed.

Conclusions:

• The proposed theoretical model provides a good approximation of the experimental behavior of the rat abdominal aorta.
• The findings contribute to a better understanding of arterial biomechanics.
• The model can be valuable for further research in cardiovascular mechanics and disease modeling.