3D Residual Stress Field in Arteries: Novel Inverse Method Based on Optical Full-field Measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel inverse method utilizing optical full-field measurements and finite element modeling to map local residual stresses in arteries, surpassing traditional average-based techniques.

Contribution

It presents a new contour-based inverse approach for detailed residual stress mapping in arterial tissues, improving upon the opening angle method.

Findings

Successfully derived detailed residual stress maps in arterial tissue.

Demonstrated the method's ability to capture local stress variations.

Enhanced understanding of arterial residual stress distribution.

Abstract

Arterial tissue consists of multiple structurally important constituents that have individual material properties and associated stress-free configurations that evolve over time. This gives rise to residual stresses contributing to the homoeostatic state of stress in vivo as well as adaptations to perturbed loads, disease or injury. The existence of residual stresses in an intact but load-free excised arterial segment suggests compressive and tensile stresses, respectively, in the inner and outer walls. Accordingly, an artery ring springs open into a sector after a radial cut. The measurement of the opening angle is commonly used to deduce the residual stresses, which are the stresses required to close back the ring. The opening angle method provides an average estimate of circumferential residual stresses but it gives no information on local distributions through the thickness and along the axial direction. To address this lack, a new method is proposed in this article to derive maps of residual stresses using an approach based on the contour method. A piece of freshly excised tissue is carefully cut into the specimen, and the local distribution of residual strains and stresses is determined from whole-body digital image correlation measurements using an inverse approach based on a finite element model.