A hyperelastic constitutive law for aortic valve tissue

J Biomech Eng. 2009 Aug;131(8):081009. doi: 10.1115/1.3127261.

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to perform biaxial testing and apply constitutive modeling to develop a strain energy function that accurately predicts the material behavior of the aortic valve leaflets. Ten leaflets from seven normal porcine aortic valves were biaxially stretched in a variety of protocols and the data combined to develop and fit a strain energy function to describe the material behavior. The results showed that the nonlinear anisotropic behavior of the aortic valve is well described by a strain energy function of two strain invariants, which uses only three coefficients to accurately predict the stress-strain behavior over a wide range of deformations. This structurally-motivated constitutive law has many applications, including computational modeling for clinical and engineering valve treatments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aortic Valve / physiology*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Elastic Modulus / physiology
  • Humans
  • Models, Cardiovascular*
  • Stress, Mechanical
  • Tensile Strength