Volume 37, Number 6, 1117-1130, DOI: 10.1007/s10439-009-9679-0

Published in partnership with

Logo

A Constitutive Model of Soft Tissue: From Nanoscale Collagen to Tissue Continuum

Huang Tang, Markus J. Buehler and Brian Moran

View Related Documents

Abstract

Soft collagenous tissue features many hierarchies of structure, starting from tropocollagen molecules that form fibrils, and proceeding to a bundle of fibrils that form fibers. Here we report the development of an atomistically informed continuum model of collagenous tissue. Results from full atomistic and molecular modeling are linked with a continuum theory of a fiber-reinforced composite, handshaking the fibril scale to the fiber and continuum scale in a hierarchical multi-scale simulation approach. Our model enables us to study the continuum-level response of the tissue as a function of cross-link density, making a link between nanoscale collagen features and material properties at larger tissue scales. The results illustrate a strong dependence of the continuum response as a function of nanoscopic structural features, providing evidence for the notion that the molecular basis for protein materials is important in defining their larger-scale mechanical properties.

Keywords  Multi-scale model - Collagen - Soft tissue - Molecular mechanics - Continuum - Finite element - Deformation - Failure - Mechanical properties

Fulltext Preview

Image of the first page of the fulltext document