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Experimental Investigation of the Anisotropic Mechanical Response of the Porcine Thoracic Aorta

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Abstract

Knowledge of the mechanical properties of blood vessels and determining appropriate constitutive relations are essential in developing methodologies for accurate prognosis of vascular diseases. We examine the directional variation of the mechanical properties of the porcine thoracic aorta by performing uniaxial extension tests on dumbbell-shaped specimens cut at five different orientations with respect to the circumferential direction of the aorta. Specimens in all the orientations considered exhibit a nonlinear constitutive response that is typical of collagenous soft tissues. Shear strain under uniaxial extension demonstrates clearly discernible anisotropy of the mechanical response of the porcine aorta, and samples oriented at 45\(^{\circ }\) and 60\(^{\circ }\) with respect to the circumferential direction show a peculiar crescent-shaped shear strain-nominal stretch response not displayed by axial and circumferential specimens. Failure stress indicates decreasing tensile strength of the porcine aortic wall from the circumferential direction to the longitudinal direction. Furthermore, we determine the material parameters for the four-fiber-family and Gasser–Holzapfel–Ogden models from the mechanical response data of the circumferential and longitudinal specimens. It is shown how the material parameters derived from the uniaxial tests on circumferential and longitudinal specimens are insufficient to characterize the response of off-axis specimens.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Michael Moreno for providing the lab facilities to conduct the experiments. This research was funded by Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Section.

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All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 100 Mechanical Engineering Office Building, College Station, TX, 77843-3123, USA

    Manoj Myneni, Raghuveer Lalitha Sridhar, Kumbakonam R. Rajagopal & Chandler C. Benjamin

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  1. Manoj Myneni
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  2. Raghuveer Lalitha Sridhar
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  3. Kumbakonam R. Rajagopal
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Correspondence to Chandler C. Benjamin.

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Myneni, M., Sridhar, R.L., Rajagopal, K.R. et al. Experimental Investigation of the Anisotropic Mechanical Response of the Porcine Thoracic Aorta. Ann Biomed Eng 50, 452–466 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-022-02931-2

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