Abstract
Porohyperelastic transport-swelling (PHETS) models (Kaufmann [1996], Simon et al [1995]) for soft tissues have been developed and applied to problems of transport within the walls of large arteries. The general theory developed in [Kaufmann, 1996] includes mass transport by diffusion and convection, the influence of electrical and chemical potentials, and osmotic swelling, as well as the characteristic nonlinear finite deformation of the tissue. The models couple the behavior of the porous solid skeleton, mobile tissue fluid and concentrations of charged species. This abstract presents a finite element model (FEM) of the convection-diffusion of an uncharged single species through a rabbit aorta under various intraluminal pressures. The results of these models show good qualitative agreement with experimental results. The general PHETS theory coupled with the FEM implementation of the theory could provide insight into the transport associated with causal factors of atherosclerosis. The models can be used to study the effectiveness of various drug delivery systems.
