title: Determination of the elastic properties of rabbit vocal fold tissue using uniaxial tensile testing and a tailored finite element model.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to quantify the effects of the specimen shape on the accuracy of mechanical properties determined from a shape-specific model generation strategy. Digital images of five rabbit vocal folds (VFs) in their initial undeformed conditions were used to build corresponding specific solid models. The displacement field of the VFs under uniaxial tensile test was then measured over the visible portion of the surface using digital image correlation. A three-dimensional finite element model was built, using ABAQUS, for each solid model, while imposing measured boundary conditions. An inverse-problem method was used, assuming a homogeneous isotropic linear elastic constitutive model. Unknown elastic properties were identified iteratively through an error minimization technique between simulated and measured force-time data. The longitudinal elastic moduli of the five rabbit VFs were calculated and compared to values from a simple analytical method and those obtained by approximating the cross-section as elliptical. The use of shape-specific models significantly reduced the standard deviation of the Young׳s moduli of the tested specimens. However, a non-parametric statistical analysis test, i.e., the Friedman test, yielded no statistically significant differences between the shape-specific method and the elliptic cylindrical finite element model. Considering the required procedures to reconstruct the shape-specific finite element model for each tissue specimen, it might be expedient to use the simpler method when large numbers of tissue specimens are to be compared regarding their Young׳s moduli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Canada QC H3A 0C3. Electronic address: neda.latifialavijeh@mail.mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Neda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Latifi
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Canada QC H3A 0C3. Electronic address: amir.miriramsheh@mail.mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Amir K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Miri
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Canada QC H3A 0C3. Electronic address: luc.mongeau@mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mongeau
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D004548:Elasticity; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D008422:Materials Testing; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D011817:Rabbits; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012984:Software; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013696:Temperature; D013718:Tensile Strength; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Biomechanics; Finite element model; Geometrical models; Inverse problem; Tensile test; Vocal fold