A truss element for modelling reversible softening in living tissues

作者：Munoz J J^*; Conte V; Asadipour N; Miodownik M

来源：Mechanics Research Communications, 2013, 49: 44-49.

DOI：10.1016/j.mechrescom.2013.02.003

• Viscoelasticity
• Maxwell
• Truss
• Null-space
• Reversible softening

We resort to non-linear viscoelasticity to develop a truss element able to model reversible softening in lung epithelial tissues undergoing transient stretch. Such a Maxwell truss element is built by resorting to a three-noded element whose mid-node is kinematically constrained to remain on the line connecting the end-nodes. The whole mechanical system undergoes an additive decomposition of the strains along the truss direction where the total contribution of the mid-node is accounted for by using a null-space projection and static condensation techniques. Assembling of such line-elements in 3D networks allows us to model extended regions of living tissues as well as their anisotropies.

• 出版日期2013-4