title: A theoretical framework to analyze bend testing of soft tissue.
abstract: It has been hypothesized that repetitive flexural stresses contribute to the fatigue-induced failure of bioprosthetic heart valves. Although experimental apparatuses capable of measuring the bending properties of biomaterials have been described, a theoretical framework to analyze the resulting data is lacking. Given the large displacements present in these bending experiments and the nonlinear constitutive behavior of most biomaterials, such a formulation must be based on finite elasticity theory. We present such a theory in this work, which is capable of fitting bending moment versus radius of curvature experimental data to an arbitrary strain energy function. A simple finite element model was constructed to study the validity of the proposed method. To demonstrate the application of the proposed approach, bend testing data from the literature for gluteraldehyde-fixed bovine pericardium were fit to a nonlinear strain energy function, which showed good agreement to the data. This method may be used to integrate bending behavior in constitutive models for soft tissue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Widener University, Chester, PA, USA. manicosia@widener.edu
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nicosia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003238:Connective Tissue / Q000502:physiology*; D004548:Elasticity; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D010496:Pericardium / Q000502:physiology*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013718:Tensile Strength