title: The mechanical buckling of curved arteries.
abstract: Though tortuosity and kinking are often observed in various arteries and arterioles, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. This paper presents a biomechanical analysis of bent buckling in long arterial segments with a small initial curvature using a thick-walled elastic cylindrical arterial model. The critical buckling pressure was established as a function of wall stiffness, wall dimensions, and the axial tension (or axial stretch ratio). The effects of both wall dimensions and axial stretch ratio on the critical pressure, as well as the thin-walled approximation were discussed. The buckling equation sheds light on the biomechanical mechanism of artery tortuosity and provides guidance for the development of new techniques to treat and prevent artery tortuosity and kinking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio, Biomedical Engineering Program, UTSA-UTHSCSA, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA. haichao.han@utsa.edu
authors.forename: Hai-Chao
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D004548:Elasticity; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D013314:Stress, Mechanical