Visco-Hyperelastic Characterization of the Equine Immature Zona Pellucida

This article presents a very detailed study on the mechanical characterization of highly nonlinear material, immature equine zona pellucida (ZP) membrane. The ZP is modeled as visco-hyperelastic soft matter. Arruda–Boyce constitutive equation and two-term Prony series are identified most suitable models for describing hyperelastic viscous components, respectively, ZP’s response. Material properties via inverse analysis based optimization which fits nanoindentation curves recorded at different rates. suitability proposed approach fully demonstrated by good agreement between AFM data numerically reconstructed force–indentation curves. A critical comparison behavior two membranes (i.e., porcine ZPs) also carried out considering information structure these materials available from electron microscopy investigations documented in literature.