Recent developments in computer-integrated and robot-aided surgery--in particular, the emergence of automatic surgical tools and robots--as well as advances in virtual reality techniques, call for closer examination of the mechanical properties of very soft tissues (such as brain, liver, kidney, etc.). The ultimate goal of our research into the biomechanics of these tissues is the development o...

The dynamic behavior of porcine brain tissue, obtained from a series of in vitro observations and experiments, is analyzed and described here with the aid of a large strain, nonlinear, viscoelastic constitutive model. Mixed gray and white matter samples excised from the superior cortex were tested in unconfined uniaxial compression within 15h post mortem. The test sequence consisted of three su...

The aim of the study was to determine intrinsic mechanical properties of the complete growth plate and its reserve, proliferative and hypertrophic zones. Growth plate disk samples from newborn swine's ulnae were tested using stress relaxation tests under unconfined compression. The Transversely Isotropic Biphasic Model (TIBPE) derived by [Cohen, B., Lai, W. M., Mow, V. C., 1998. A transversely ...

The lateral confinement of masonry columns using composites have shown to improve their strength and ductility. Although, several research studies were focused on investigating the monotonic compression behaviour confined in past, cyclic characteristics, which are necessary for seismic dynamic analyses, not well investigated. Thus, an attempt has been made experimentally characterise under axia...

Mechanics of articular cartilage can be represented using poroelastic theories where fluid and solid displacements are viscously coupled to create a time-dependent spatially heterogeneous behavior. In recent models of this tissue, finite element methods have been used to predict tissue deformation as a function of time for adult articular cartilage bearing a characteristic depth-dependent struc...

Mechanical forces play a crucial role in tumor patho-physiology. Compression of cancer cells inhibits their proliferation rate, induces apoptosis and enhances their invasive and metastatic potential. Additionally, compression of intratumor blood vessels reduces the supply of oxygen, nutrients and drugs, affecting tumor progression and treatment. Despite the great importance of the mechanical mi...

Hydrated soft tissues, such as articular cartilage, are often modeled as biphasic systems with individually incompressible solid and fluid phases, and biphasic models are employed to fit experimental data in order to determine the mechanical and hydraulic properties of the tissues. Two of the most common experimental setups are confined and unconfined compression. Analytical solutions exist for...

It is well established that mechanical loading is important to homeostasis of cartilage tissue, and growing evidence suggests that it influences cartilage differentiation as well. Whereas the effect of mechanical forces on chondrocyte biosynthesis and gene expression has been vigorously investigated, the effect of the mechanical environment on chondrocyte differentiation has received little att...