title: A constitutive description of the anisotropic response of the fascia lata.
abstract: In this paper we propose a constitutive model to analyze in-plane extension of goat fascia lata. We first perform a histological analysis of the fascia that shows a well-organized bi-layered arrangement of undulated collagen fascicles oriented along two well defined directions. To develop a model consistent with the tissue structure we identify the absolute and relative thickness of each layer and the orientation of the preferred directions. New data are presented showing the mechanical response in uniaxial and planar biaxial extension. The paper proposes a constitutive relation to describe the mechanical response. We provide a summary of the main ingredients of the nonlinear theory of elasticity and introduce a suitable strain-energy function to describe the anisotropic response of the fascia. We validate the model by showing good fit of the numerical results and the experimental data. Comments are included about differences and analogies between goat fascia lata and the human iliotibial band.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, United States.
authors.forename: F Q
authors.initials: FQ
authors.lastname: Pancheri
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Eng
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Lieberman
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Biewener
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, United States. Electronic address: Luis.Dorfmann@tufts.edu.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dorfmann
mesh_terms: D016880:Anisotropy; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004548:Elasticity; D005206:Fascia Lata / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008954:Models, Biological; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
keywords: Biaxial data; Connective tissue; Constitutive model; Fascia lata; Histological analysis; Uniaxial data