The mechanical attributes of soft tissues depend on their molecular building blocks (fat, collagen etc.), on the microscopic and macroscopic structural organization of these blocks (Fung 1981), and on the boundary conditions involved. These mechanical attributes may include the shear or elastic moduli (Young’s modulus), the Poisson’s ratio, or any of the longitudinal or shear strains that occur...

In breast elastography, breast tissues usually undergo large compressions resulting in significant geometric and structural changes, and consequently nonlinear mechanical behavior. In this study, an elastography technique is presented where parameters characterizing tissue nonlinear behavior is reconstructed. Such parameters can be used for tumor tissue classification. To model the nonlinear be...

To date no adequate diagnostic strategy exists for the assessment of plaque stability. Current approaches focus on identification of high-risk morphological features in cross-sectional images, such as thin caps and large lipid pools. Plaque stability, however, is a 3D mechanical problem, whose solution requires information on both the geometry and the mechanical properties of the involved tissu...

Rib fractures are a common morbidity following automotive crashes. While the rib bones are wellcharacterized, and articular cartilage from joints such as the knee and shoulder has been extensively mechanically characterized, almost no mechanical examination has been performed of the rib-cage costal cartilage. Costal cartilage is a hyaline cartilage, like articular cartilage, but it differs from...

Anatomy related heterogeneous discontinuities in material properties strongly influence human soft tissue behavior under mechanical load. We present a parametric model of the aortic root, which defines multi-material surface regions for advanced tissue property control and supports patient-specific model refinement. Our results strongly indicate improvements for in-silico clinical application e...

In this paper static and dynamic responses of a fixed-fixed microbeam to electrostatic force and mechanical shock for different cases have been studied. The governing equations whose solution holds the answer to all our questions about the mechanical behavior is the nonlinear elasto-electrostatic equations. Due to the nonlinearity and complexity of the derived equations analytical solution are ...

Many tissues in the human body consist of cells embedded in an extracellular matrix that has an abundance of charged macromolecules. Examples of such tissues include tendon, bone, cartilage, and corneal stroma. Motions of the body impose on these tissues solid and fluid mechanical stimuli, such as compression, tension, and viscous shear due to fluid flow. Mechanical stimuli may influence cell b...

The effective design of body armor requires the use of biomimicking materials that accurately and robustly reproduce the characteristic mechanical behavior of human tissues. The mechanical performance of the soft tissues is determined by their viscoelastic properties and for this reason the optimal soft tissue surrogate must viscoelastically mimic the original tissue. One traditional tissue sur...