Characterizing white matter tissue in large strain via asymmetric indentation and inverse finite element modeling.
Characterizing the mechanical properties of white matter is important to understand and model brain development and injury. With embedded aligned axonal fibers, white matter is typically modeled as a transversely isotropic material. However, most studies characterize the white matter tissue using models with a single anisotropic invariant or in a small-strain regime. In this study, we combined a single experimental procedure - asymmetric indentation - with inverse finite element (FE) modeling to estimate the nearly incompressible transversely isotropic material parameters of white matter. A minimal form comprising three parameters was employed to simulate indentation responses in the large-strain regime. The parameters were estimated using a global optimization procedure based on a genetic algorithm (GA). Experimental data from two indentation configurations of porcine white matter, parallel and perpendicular to the axonal fiber direction, were utilized to estimate model parameters. Results in this study confirmed a strong mechanical anisotropy of white matter in large strain. Further, our results suggested that both indentation configurations are needed to estimate the parameters with sufficient accuracy, and that the indenter-sample friction is important. Finally, we also showed that the estimated parameters were consistent with those previously obtained via a trial-and-error forward FE method in the small-strain regime. These findings are useful in modeling and parameterization of white matter, especially under large deformation, and demonstrate the potential of the proposed asymmetric indentation technique to characterize other soft biological tissues with transversely isotropic properties.
School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215021, Jiangsu, China; Robotics and Microsystems Center, Soochow University, Suzhou 215021, Jiangsu, China. Electronic address: fengyuan@suda.edu.cn.
Yuan
Y
Feng
School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, United States; Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78705, United States.
Chung-Hao
CH
Lee
School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215021, Jiangsu, China; Robotics and Microsystems Center, Soochow University, Suzhou 215021, Jiangsu, China.
Lining
L
Sun
Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, United States.
Songbai
S
Ji
School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215021, Jiangsu, China.
Xuefeng
X
Zhao
D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D004548:Elasticity; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D017276:Friction; D008954:Models, Biological; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013552:Swine; D066127:White Matter / Q000502:physiology*
Genetic algorithm; Indentation; Mechanical properties; Soft tissue; Transversely isotropic material
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