Mechanical properties of very soft tissues, such as brain, liver, kidney and prostate have recently joined the mainstream research topics in biomechanics. This has happened in spite of the fact that these tissues do not bear mechanical loads. The interest in the biomechanics of very soft tissues has been motivated by the developments in computer-integrated and robot-aided surgery--in particular...

To study the damage and destruction behavior of small coal pillars in mine roadway driving along gobs under long-term in-situ stress multiple engineering disturbances, an unconfined compression experiment a discontinuous cyclic load was designed, with holding time as variable. An electro-hydraulic servo rock testing machine used to impose on sample perform final uniaxial compressive strength te...

The importance of Lithium-ion batteries continues to grow with the introduction of more electronic devices, electric cars, and energy storage. Yet the optimization approach taken by the manufacturers and system designers is one of test and build, an approach that nearly every other industry has long abandoned. A computational model is required to reduce the expensive build-test cycle and allow ...

The knee articular cartilage must withstand large compressive loads, providing a soft and lubricated surface in the contact between bone epiphysis. This structure smoothies knee movements and promotes adequate load distribution. Assessing the mechanical properties of the articular cartilage and understanding its healthy behavior can be a way of preventing pathological situations like osteoarthr...

Extensive research has been carried out for at least 50 years to understand the mechanical properties of brain tissue in order to understand the mechanisms of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The observed large variability in experimental results may be due to the inhomogeneous nature of brain tissue and to the broad range of test conditions. However, test temperature is also considered as one of ...

Fibrochondrocytes within meniscal tissue have been shown to alter their biochemical activity in response to changes in their mechanical environment. Meniscal tissue is known to contain both spherical (chondrocytic-like) and elliptical (fibroblastic-like) cells. We hypothesize that a cell's mechanical environment is governed by local material properties of the tissue around the cell, the cell mo...

An experimental technique is developed to impose a planar lateral confinement in a prismatic specimen (with rectangular cross-section); the setup enabled a controlled and homogeneous stress state with high lateral compressive stresses. A transparent polycrystalline aluminum oxynitride (AlON) specimen was used for the study. The statically pre-compressed specimen was then subjected to axial dyna...

The underlying mechanisms for the viscoelastic behavior of tendon and ligament tissue are poorly understood. It has been suggested that both a flow-dependent and flow-independent mechanism may contribute at different structural levels. We hypothesized that the stress relaxation response of a single tendon fascicle is consistent with the flow-dependent mechanism described by the biphasic theory ...