We describe a modeling methodology intended as a preliminary step in the identification of appropriate constitutive frameworks for the time-dependent response of biological tissues. The modeling approach comprises a customizable rheological network of viscous and elastic elements governed by user-defined 1D constitutive relationships. The model parameters are identified by iterative nonlinear o...

A new modeling approach is proposed for predicting the bulk electromechanical properties of piezoelectric composites. The proposed model offers the same level of convenience as the wellknown Mori-Tanaka method. The electromechanical properties of four piezoelectric polymer composite materials are predicted with the proposed, Mori-Tanaka, Self-consistent methods, and detailed finite element anal...

Due to the large coupling between their electrical and mechanical properties, ferroelectric ceramics are increasingly being implemented in novel devices. This review reports on recent advances in the development of predictive constitutive models for the coupled and non-linear electromechanical behavior of ferroelectrics. Such constitutive models are required to analyze the performance of ferroe...

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on capillary tubes commonly used as expansion device in household refrigerators and freezers. The experiments were performed with HFC-134a at different condensing pressures and level of subcooling. The pressure and temperature profiles along the capillary tubes were measured in each test run. The data set was then used to evaluate the sui...

Long term responses of the heart to e.g. infarction or surgical intervention are related to response of the tissue to changes in the mechanical environment. The tissue response is likely to involve (local) change of mass. Implementation of the associated inhomogeneous change in volume for a complex geometry is cumbersome. In the present study, we propose a computational framework for finite vol...

Modeling the mechanical response of the brain has become increasingly important over the past decades. Although mechanical stimuli to the brain are small under physiological conditions, mechanics plays a significant role under pathological conditions including brain development, brain injury, and brain surgery. Well calibrated and validated constitutive models for brain tissue are essential to ...

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Background: There is no consistent data on the mechanical properties of sheep intestine. OBJECTIVES: We performed a series of biaxial strain measurement experiments and extracted the constitutive model to describe the mechanical characteristics of the sheep intestinal tissue. METHODS: Eleven specimens were obtained freshly from sacrificed  sheep and the planar biaxial tests were performed on th...