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Modeling the Mechanical Response of In Vivo Human Skin Under a Rich Set of Deformations

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Abstract

Determining the mechanical properties of an individual’s skin is important in the fields of pathology, biomedical device design, and plastic surgery. To address this need, we present a finite element model that simulates the skin of the anterior forearm and posterior upper arm under a rich set of three-dimensional deformations. We investigated the suitability of the Ogden and Tong and Fung strain energy functions along with a quasi-linear viscoelastic law. Using non-linear optimization techniques, we found material parameters and in vivo pre-stresses for different volunteers. The model simulated the experiments with errors-of-fit ranging from 13.7 to 21.5%. Pre-stresses ranging from 28 to 92 kPa were estimated. We show that using only in-plane experimental data in the parameter optimization results in a poor prediction of the out-of-plane response. The identifiability of the model parameters, which are evaluated using different determinability criteria, improves by increasing the number of deformation orientations in the experiments.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology, through grants NERF 139400 and NERF 9077/3608892. This publication is also based on work supported in part by Award No KUK-C1-013-04, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia, 2366 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Cormac Flynn

  2. Auckland Bioengineering Institute, The University of Auckland, 70 Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand

    Andrew Taberner & Poul Nielsen

  3. Department of Engineering Science, The University of Auckland, 70 Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand

    Andrew Taberner & Poul Nielsen

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  1. Cormac Flynn
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  2. Andrew Taberner
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  3. Poul Nielsen
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Correspondence to Cormac Flynn.

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Associate Editor Jane Grande-Allen oversaw the review of this article.

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Flynn, C., Taberner, A. & Nielsen, P. Modeling the Mechanical Response of In Vivo Human Skin Under a Rich Set of Deformations. Ann Biomed Eng 39, 1935–1946 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-011-0292-7

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