Anisotropic micro-sphere-based finite elasticity applied to blood vessel modelling (Q835851)

The authors present an anisotropic micro-sphere-based finite elasticity model as applied to blood vessels. In the model, the strain energy density function is decomposed into volumetric and deviatoric contributions. A neo-Hookean type of model is used for the deviatoric ground substance, whereas a micro-sphere-based approach is employed to model the fibrous distributions. The anisotropy was introduced by means of von Mises orientation distribution functions. Two different micro-mechanical approaches, say exponential and worm-like-chain based formulation, are applied to micro-fibers and illustratively compared. The passage from micro-structural contributions to the macroscopic response is obtained by a computational homogenization. Several experimental results are used to calculate macro-structural coefficients for composite materials.