A Comparative Study of Mechanical Properties of Fresh and Elastic-Network Only Proximal Artery Tissues

The contribution of the elastic network to the mechanical behavior of arterial tissues is not well quantified. This paper focuses on the quantification of the behavior of fresh and elastic-network-only (digested) calf arterial tissues in uniaxial deformation using the anisotropic hyperelastic model proposed by Bischoff et al. ([1]). This model characterizes an orthotropic, hyperelastic response, which is well-suited for the modeling of arterial tissues ([2],[3]). For this paper, we attempt to match the material constants associated with the Bischoff-Arruda anisotropic hyperelastic model to our experimental data from arterial tissues including the ascending aortic arch, descending aorta, main, left, and right pulmonary arteries, using a least-squares method. The material parameters obtained from the data fit provide a quantitative comparison of mechanical properties of fresh artery tissues and elastin networks.