A Constitutive Model of Soft Tissue: From Nanoscale Collagen to Tissue Continuum

作者：Tang Huang; Buehler Markus J^*; Moran Brian

来源：Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2009, 37(6): 1117-1130.

DOI：10.1007/s10439-009-9679-0

• Multi-scale model
• Collagen
• Soft tissue
• Molecular mechanics
• Continuum
• Finite element
• Deformation
• Failure
• Mechanical properties

Soft collagenous tissue features many hierarchies of structure, starting from tropocollagen molecules that form fibrils, and proceeding to a bundle of fibrils that form fibers. Here we report the development of an atomistically informed continuum model of collagenous tissue. Results from full atomistic and molecular modeling are linked with a continuum theory of a fiber-reinforced composite, handshaking the fibril scale to the fiber and continuum scale in a hierarchical multi-scale simulation approach. Our model enables us to study the continuum-level response of the tissue as a function of cross-link density, making a link between nanoscale collagen features and material properties at larger tissue scales. The results illustrate a strong dependence of the continuum response as a function of nanoscopic structural features, providing evidence for the notion that the molecular basis for protein materials is important in defining their larger-scale mechanical properties.

• 出版日期2009-6
• 单位西北大学