The continuum mechanical treatment of biological growth and remodeling has attracted considerable attention over the past fifteen years. Many aspects of these problems are now well-understood, yet there remain areas in need of significant development from the standpoint of experiments, theory, and computation. In this perspective paper we review the state of the field and highlight open questions, challenges, and avenues for further development.
When a tensile strain is applied to a film supported on a compliant substrate, a pattern of parallel cracks can channel through both the film and substrate. A linear-elastic fracture-mechanics model for the phenomenon is presented to extend earlier analyses in which cracking was limited to the film. It is shown how failure of the substrate reduces the critical strain required to initiate fracture of the film. This effect is more pronounced for relatively tough films. However, there is a critical ratio of the film to substrate toughness above which stable cracks do not form in response to an applied load. Instead, catastrophic failure of the substrate occurs simultaneously with the propagation of a single channel crack. This critical toughness ratio increases with the modulus mismatch between the film and substrate, so that periodic crack patterns are more likely to be observed with relatively stiff films. With relatively low values of modulus mismatch, even a film that is more brittle than the substrate can cause catastrophic failure of the substrate. Below the critical toughness ratio, there is a regime in which stable crack arrays can be formed in the film and substrate. The depth of these arrays increases, while the spacing decreases, as the strain is increased. Eventually, the crack array can become deep enough to cause substrate failure.
The goal of this manuscript is to establish a novel computational model for stretch-induced skin growth during tissue expansion. Tissue expansion is a common surgical procedure to grow extra skin for reconstructing birth defects, burn injuries, or cancerous breasts. To model skin growth within the framework of nonlinear continuum mechanics, we adopt the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into an elastic and a growth part. Within this concept, we characterize growth as an irreversible, stretch-driven, transversely isotropic process parameterized in terms of a single scalar-valued growth multiplier, the in-plane area growth. To discretize its evolution in time, we apply an unconditionally stable, implicit Euler backward scheme. To discretize it in space, we utilize the finite element method. For maximum algorithmic efficiency and optimal convergence, we suggest an inner Newton iteration to locally update the growth multiplier at each integration point. This iteration is embedded within an outer Newton iteration to globally update the deformation at each finite element node. To demonstrate the characteristic features of skin growth, we simulate the process of gradual tissue expander inflation. To visualize growth-induced residual stresses, we simulate a subsequent tissue expander deflation. In particular, we compare the spatio-temporal evolution of area growth, elastic strains, and residual stresses for four commonly available tissue expander geometries. We believe that predictive computational modeling can open new avenues in reconstructive surgery to rationalize and standardize clinical process parameters such as expander geometry, expander size, expander placement, and inflation timing.
Electrical stimulation is currently the gold standard treatment for heart rhythm disorders. However, electrical pacing is associated with technical limitations and unavoidable potential complications. Recent developments now enable the stimulation of mammalian cells with light using a novel technology known as optogenetics. The optical stimulation of genetically engineered cells has significantly changed our understanding of electrically excitable tissues, paving the way towards controlling heart rhythm disorders by means of photostimulation. Controlling these disorders, in turn, restores coordinated force generation to avoid sudden cardiac death. Here, we report a novel continuum framework for the photoelectrochemistry of living systems that allows us to decipher the mechanisms by which this technology regulates the electrical and mechanical function of the heart. Using a modular multiscale approach, we introduce a non-selective cation channel, channelrhodopsin-2, into a conventional cardiac muscle cell model via an additional photocurrent governed by a light-sensitive gating variable. Upon optical stimulation, this channel opens and allows sodium ions to enter the cell, inducing electrical activation. In side-by-side comparisons with conventional heart muscle cells, we show that photostimulation directly increases the sodium concentration, which indirectly decreases the potassium concentration in the cell, while all other characteristics of the cell remain virtually unchanged. We integrate our model cells into a continuum model for excitable tissue using a nonlinear parabolic second order partial differential equation, which we discretize in time using finite differences and in space using finite elements. To illustrate the potential of this computational model, we virtually inject our photosensitive cells into different locations of a human heart, and explore its activation sequences upon photostimulation. Our computational optogenetics tool box allows us to virtually probe landscapes of process parameters, and to identify optimal photostimulation sequences with the goal to pace human hearts with light and, ultimately, to restore mechanical function.
Biological tissues have unique mechanical properties due to the wavy fibrous collagen and elastin microstructure. In inflation, a vessel easily distends under low pressure but becomes stiffer when the fibers are straightened to take up the load. The current microstructural models of blood vessels assume affine deformation; i.e., the deformation of each fiber is assumed to be identical to the macroscopic deformation of the tissue. This uniform-field (UF) assumption leads to the macroscopic (or effective) strain energy of the tissue that is the volumetric sum of the contributions of the tissue components. Here, a micromechanics-based constitutive model of fibrous tissue is developed to remove the affine assumption and to take into consideration the heterogeneous interactions between the fibers and the ground substance. The development is based on the framework of a recently developed second-order homogenization theory, and takes into account the waviness, orientations, and spatial distribution of the fibers, as well as the material nonlinearity at finite-strain deformation. In an illustrative simulation, the predictions of the macroscopic stress-strain relation, and the statistical deformation of the fibers are compared to the UF model, as well as finite-element (FE) simulation. Our predictions agree well with the FE results, while the UF predictions significantly overestimate. The effects of fiber distribution and waviness on the macroscopic stress-strain relation are also investigated. The present mathematical model may serves as a foundation for native as well as for engineered tissues and biomaterials.
A magnetic resonance measurement technique was developed to characterize the transient mechanical response of a gel cylinder subjected to angular acceleration. The technique employs tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) synchronized to periodic impact excitation of a bulk specimen. The tagged MRI sequence provides, non-invasively, an array of distributed displacement and strain measurements with high spatial (here, 5 mm) and temporal (6 ms) resolution. The technique was validated on a cylindrical gelatin sample. Measured dynamic strain fields were compared to strain fields predicted using (1) a closed-form solution and (2) finite element simulation of shear waves in a three-parameter "standard" linear viscoelastic cylinder subjected to similar initial and boundary conditions. Material parameters used in the analyses were estimated from measurements made on the gelatin in a standard rheometer. The experimental results support the utility of tagged MRI for dynamic, non-invasive assays such as measurement of shear waves in brain tissue during angular acceleration of the skull. When applied in the inverse sense, the technique has potential for characterization of the mechanical behavior of gel biomaterials.
If a body with a stiffer surface layer is loaded in compression, a surface wrinkling instability may be developed. A bifurcation analysis is presented for determining the critical load for the onset of wrinkling and the associated wavelength for materials in which the elastic modulus is an arbitrary function of depth. The analysis leads to an eigenvalue problem involving a pair of linear ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients which are discretized and solved using the finite element method.The method is validated by comparison with classical results for a uniform layer on a dissimilar substrate. Results are then given for materials with exponential and error-function gradation of elastic modulus and for a homogeneous body with thermoelastically-induced compressive stresses.
The existence of one-component surface waves in materials with a plane of symmetry normal to the direction of propagation is discussed, with particular attention given to transversely isotropic materials in this class. A unique feature of these waves is that the traction vector which vanishes at the free surface is zero at all depths, implying that one-component surface waves are also pure modes of slabs. All of the `theoretical materials' which support the wave have the unusual property that at least one Poisson's ratio must be negative
A two-dimensional computer code, using a multi-material Eulerian finite element formulation, was used to investigate the dynamic micromechanical behavior of granular material. The main results are:The strain-rate insensitive material model provides the correct increase in the dissipated energy with an increase of shock pressure;An increase in the initial porosity or the pressure results in the transition from the quasistatic to the dynamic regime of particle deformation, which can be characterized by the intensive localized plastic flow on the particles' interfaces. A new space scale is introduced into the system—the width of localized plastic flow;The macro and micro-scale responses of the granular material do not depend on the particle size for a rate independent material model;The energy of the shock wave compression at high pressures cannot be completely dissipated during the pore collapse at the shock front;The transition pressure from the quasistatic to the dynamic deformation regime does not depend on the density of the solid material for a given porosity with the other material properties fixed;A well developed dynamic regime correlates with a critical value of the microkinetic energy, which is comparable to the geometrically necessary energy for complete pore collapse.The results of computer calculations are in qualitative agreement with the experiments.
Multidirectional compression testing of 1100 aluminum cubes at room temperature in three orthogonal directions developed saturation flow stresses at very large accumulated strains. The saturation stress was found to be a function of the strain increment used, and followed a power-law relationship. The results correlated well with fatigue tests of aluminum and alpha iron. Copper data showed a similar but more pronounced behavior. The presence of dislocation cells, subgrains and dislocation tangles dominated the microstructure as observed by transmission electron microscopy. The microstructure changed in a systematic manner with accumulated straining. Significant differences in sizes and concentrations of cells and subgrains were found for unidirectional compared with multidirectional straining. These features were correlated using generally accepted relationships between individual substructural configurations and flow stress.
Composites whose response can be described in terms of a convex potential function are discussed. Bounds are constructed for the overall, or effective, potential of the composite, given the individual potentials of its constituents. Steady-state creep is considered explicitly but the results apply equally well to physically nonlinear elasticity, or deformation-theory plasticity, if strain-rate is reinterpreted as infinitesimal strain. Earlier work employed a linear “comparison” medium. This permitted the construction of only one bound—either an upper bound or a lower bound—or even in some cases no bound at all. Use of a nonlinear comparison medium removes this restriction but at the expense of requiring detailed exploration of the properties of the trial fields that are employed. The fields used here—and previously—have the property of “bounded mean oscillation”; the use of a theorem that applies to such fields permits the construction of the bounds that were previously inaccessible. Illustrative results, which allow for three-point correlations, are presented for an isotropic two-phase composite, each component of which is isotropic, incompressible and conforms to a power-law relation between equivalent stress and equivalent strain-rate. Generalized Hashin-Shtrikman-type bounds follow by allowing the parameter corresponding to the three-point correlations to take its extreme values.
The phenomena occurring during rapid crack propagation in brittle single crystals was studied by cleaving strip-like silicon specimens along the {1 1 1} low-energy cleavage plane under bending. The experiments reveal phenomena associated with rapid crack propagation in brittle single crystals not previously reported, and new crack path instabilities in particular. In contrast to amorphous materials, the observed instabilities are generated at relatively low velocity, while at high velocity the crack path remains stable. The experiments demonstrate that crack velocity in single crystals can attain the theoretical limit. No evidence for mirror, mist, and hackle instabilities, typical in amorphous materials, was found. The important role played by the atomistic symmetry of the crystals on controlling and generating the surface instabilities is explained; the importance of the velocity and orientation-dependent cleavage energy is discussed. The surface instabilities are generated to satisfy minimum energy dissipation considerations. These findings necessitate a new approach to the fundamentals of dynamic crack propagation in brittle single crystals.
In this paper, the crack-tip fields in a general nonhomogeneous material are summarized. The fracture toughness and R-curve of functionally graded materials (FGMs) are studied based on the crack-bridging concept and a rule of mixtures. It is shown that the fracture toughness is significantly increased when a crack grows from the ceramic-rich region into the metal-rich region in an alumina-nickel FGM. By applying the concept of the toughening mechanism to the study of the strength behavior of FGMs, it is found that the residual strength of the alumina-nickel FGM with an edge crack on the ceramic side is quite notch insensitive.
This paper focuses on the unification of two frequently used and apparently different strain gradient crystal plasticity frameworks: (i) the physically motivated strain gradient crystal plasticity models proposed by Evers et al. [2004a. Non-local crystal plasticity model with intrinsic SSD and GND effects. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 52, 2379–2401; 2004b. Scale dependent crystal plasticity framework with dislocation density and grain boundary effects. International Journal of Solids and Structures 41, 5209–5230] and Bayley et al. [2006. A comparison of dislocation induced back stress formulations in strain gradient crystal plasticity. International Journal of Solids and Structure 43, 7268–7286; 2007. A three dimensional dislocation field crystal plasticity approach applied to miniaturized structures. Philosophical Magazine 87, 1361–1378] (here referred to as Evers–Bayley type models), where a physical back stress plays the most important role and which are further extended here to deal with truly large deformations, and (ii) the thermodynamically consistent strain gradient crystal plasticity model of Gurtin (2002–2008) (here referred to as the Gurtin type model), where the energetic part of a higher order micro-stress is derived from a non-standard free energy function. The energetic micro-stress vectors for the Gurtin type models are extracted from the definition of the back stresses of the improved Evers–Bayley type models. The possible defect energy forms that yield the derived physically based micro-stresses are discussed. The duality of both type of formulations is shown further by a comparison of the micro-boundary conditions. As a result, this paper provides a direct physical interpretation of the different terms present in Gurtin's model.
A general methodology to develop hyper-elastic membrane models applicable to crystalline films one-atom thick is presented. In this method, an extension of the Born rule based on the exponential map is proposed. The exponential map accounts for the fact that the lattice vectors of the crystal lie along the chords of the curved membrane, and consequently a tangent map like the standard Born rule is inadequate. In order to obtain practical methods, the exponential map is locally approximated. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated by numerical studies of carbon nanotubes. Deformed configurations as well as equilibrium energies of atomistic simulations are compared with those provided by the continuum membrane resulting from this method discretized by finite elements.
Solids that exhibit localization of deformation (in the form of shear bands) at sufficiently high levels of strain, are frequently modeled by gradient type non-local constitutive laws, i.e. continuum theories that include higher order deformation gradients. These models incorporate a length scale for the localized deformation zone and are either postulated or justified from micromechanical considerations. Of interest here is the consistent derivation of such models from a given microstructure and the subsequent investigation of their localization and stability behavior under finite strains.In the interest of simplicity, the microscopic model is a discrete, periodic, non-linear elastic lattice structure in two or three dimensions. The corresponding macroscopic model is a continuum constitutive law involving displacement gradients of all orders. Attention is focused on the simplest such model, namely the one whose energy density includes gradients of the displacements only up to the second order. The relation between the ellipticity of the resulting first (local) and second (non-local) order gradient models at finite strains, the stability of uniform strain solutions and the possibility of localized deformation zones is discussed. The investigations of the resulting continuum are done for two different microstructures, the second one of which approximates the behavior of perfect monatomic crystals in plane strain. Localized strain solutions based on the continuum approximation are possible with the first microstructurc but not with the second. Implications for the stability of three-dimensional crystals using realistic interaction potentials are also discussed.
The plastic behavior of micro- and nano-scale crystalline pillars is investigated under nominally uniform compression. The transition from forest hardening to exhaustion hardening dominated behavior is shown to emerge from discrete dislocation dynamics simulations upon reduction in the initial source density. The analyses provide new insight into the scaling of flow stress with specimen size and also highlight the connection between individual dislocation mechanisms, collective phenomena and overall behavior.
Many metals which fail by a void growth mechanism display a macroscopically planar fracture process zone of one or two void spacings in thickness characterized by intense plastic flow in the ligaments between the voids; outside this region, the voids exhibit little or no growth. To model this process a material layer containing a pre-existing population of similar sized voids is assumed. The thickness of the layer, D, can be identified with the mean spacing between the voids. This layer is represented by an aggregate of computational cells of linear dimension D. Each cell contains a single void of some initial volume. The Gurson constitutive relation for dilatant plasticity describes the hole growth in a cell resulting in material softening and, ultimately, loss of stress carrying capacity. The collection of cells softened by hole growth constitutes the fracture process zone of length l1. Two fracture mechanism regimes can be identified corresponding to l1 ≈ D and l1 ⪢ D. The connection between these mechanisms and fracture resistance is discussed.
Stress discontinuities in composite media can be treated systematically by splitting second-rank tensors at an interface into exterior and interior parts. With anisotropic response the decomposition needs support by an appropriate algebra of fourth-rank interfacial operators. This topic is reviewed here and some fresh standpoints are proposed. These lead to a reorganization of the algebra and its further development. The main new application is to elastoplastic composites whose response is subject to the normality flow-rule. Contact is also made with existing theories of incipient discontinuities in hyperbolic states of plastic deformation.
The mechanical properties of an open-framework structure constructed of joints and beam members are strongly influenced by both its geometrical configuration and joint flexibility. This paper clarifies the relationship between joint flexibility and Poisson's ratio, which is a mechanical criterion for solid deformation, and discusses two types of in-plane anisotropic structures made up of four-coordinate flexible joints and elbowed beam members. Uniaxial tensile analyses estimate the linear and nonlinear elastic properties of these frameworks by applying straightforward joint modeling with multi-rotational degrees of freedom. The numerical results show that these proposed frameworks produce a variety of deformability dependent on the joint flexibility in auxetic deformation with a negative Poisson's ratio, the folding mechanics under kinematic indeterminacy, and the transition of Poisson's ratio between the positive and negative values. The geometrical and topological aspects of the obtained mechanical behaviors are discussed.
We consider an infinite square-cell lattice of elastic beams with a semi-infinite crack. Symmetric and antisymmetric bending modes of fracture under remote loads are examined. The related long-wave asymptotes corresponding to a continuous anisotropic bending plate are also considered. In the latter model, the symmetric mode is characterized by the square-root type singularity, whereas the antisymmetric mode results in a hyper-singular field. A solution for the continuous plate with a finite crack is also presented. These closed-form continuous solutions describe the fields in the whole plane. The main goal is to establish analytical connections between the ‘macrolevel’ state, defined by the continuous asymptote of the lattice solution, and the maximal bending moment in the crack-front beam, that is, to determine the resistance of the lattice with an initial crack to the crack advance. The solutions are obtained in the same way as for mass–spring lattices. Considering the static problems we use the discrete Fourier transform and the Wiener–Hopf technique. Monotonically distributed bending moments ahead of the crack are determined for the symmetric mode, and a self-equilibrated transverse force distribution is found for the antisymmetric mode. It is shown that in the latter case only the crack-front beam resists to the fracture development, whereas the forces in the other beams facilitate the fracture. In this way, the macrolevel fracture energy is determined in terms of the material strength. The macrolevel energy release is found to be much greater than the critical strain energy of the beam, especially in the hyper-singular mode. In both problems, it is found that among the beams surrounding the crack the crack-front beam is maximally stressed, and hence its strength defines the strength of the structure.
The viscoplasticity theory based on overstress (VBO) is used to predict ratchetting tests reported by Ruggles and Krempl in Part I (J. Mech. Phys. Solids38, 575, 1990). The VBO predicts the influence of ratchetting rate correctly. An increase in ratchet stress rate reduces the ratchet strain. Quantitative predictions are reasonable for tests with no prior cyclic hardening. For tests with prior hardening the theory predicts too large a ratchet strain. It is shown that this can be corrected by making the shape function dependent on history. Theory and experiment do not exhibit a stress rate history effect.
The spuniaxial viscoplastic behavior of AISI Type 304 stainless steel was investigated by tensile tests at various strain-rates (10−8−10−2s−1), and by short-term creep and relaxation tests up to 5 h. Instantaneous large changes in strain-rate were also performed during monotoniC and cyclic loading. A servocontrolled testing machine and displacement measurement on the specimen gage length were used for all tests.The results show significant rate-sensitivity, creep and relaxation. Test histories involving loading and unloading with positive loads up to 15% strain show that the relaxation behavior in the plastic range depends only on the strain-rate preceding the relaxation test and is independent of the strain magnitude. Also, the relaxation behavior is uniquely related to the stress changes corresponding to instantaneous large changes in the strain-rate during tensile tests. Completely reversed strain-controlled loading gradually changes the stress change/strain-rate change behavior. Annealed specimens and specimens loaded to a cyclic steady-state differ not only in their work-hardening characteristics but also in their rate-dependent behavior. In the cyclic steady-state, different hysteresis loops are traced for different strain-rates with fully reversible transitions from one hysteresis loop to another under strain-rate changes. These results support the notion that the viscoplastic behavior can be represented by piecewise nonlinear viscoelasticity.
