Stretch-flangeability measures the ability of a material to form into a complex shape. The parameter is often related to simple properties derived from tensile tests. An attempt is made here to discover the best way to exploit tensile test data to indicate flangeabilty. It is found that the ultimate tensile strength of steel is the single most important criterion that correlates with stretch-fl...

A critical examination is made of two classes of strain gradient plasticity theories currently available for studying micrometre-scale plasticity. One class is characterized by certain stress quantities expressed in terms of increments of strains and their gradients, whereas the other class employs incremental relationships between all stress quantities and the increments of strains and their g...

Neural stem and progenitor cell (NSPC) fate is strongly influenced by mechanotransduction as modulation of substrate stiffness affects lineage choice. Other types of mechanical stimuli, such as stretch (tensile strain), occur during CNS development and trauma, but their consequences for NSPC differentiation have not been reported. We delivered a 10% static equibiaxial stretch to NSPCs and exami...

Wrinkles are commonly observed in stretched thin sheets and membranes. This paper presents a numerical study on stretch-induced wrinkling of hyperelastic thin sheets based on nonlinear finite element analyses. The model problem is set up for uniaxial stretching of a rectangular sheet with two clamped ends and two free edges. A two-dimensional stress analysis is performed first under the plane-s...

BACKGROUND Surgical repair of congenital and acquired cardiac defects may be enhanced by the use of autologous bioengineered muscle grafts. These tissue-engineered constructs are not optimal in their formation and function. We hypothesized that a mechanical stretch regimen applied to human heart cells that were seeded on a three-dimensional gelatin scaffold (Gelfoam) would improve tissue format...

Different patterns of extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling in the heart are thought to be dependent on altered mechanical and chemical conditions and can contribute to cardiac dysfunction. Cardiac fibroblasts are the primary regulators of the ECM and may respond to mechanical factors in vitro. We hypothesized that different types of in vitro strains, e.g. tensile or compressive, can stimulate ...

Twenty-five rapidly adapting mechanoreceptor afferents were recorded in an in vitro preparation of rat skin and nerve. Single units were recorded while the skin was subjected to dynamic uniaxial stretch using a pseudo-Gaussian noise (PGN) input waveform. Force was the controlled variable in stretch stimuli. Measured loads and displacements were used to calculate tensile stresses, strains, and t...

We create acoustomechanical soft metamaterials whose response to uniaxial tensile stressing can be easily tailored by programming acoustic wave inputs, resulting in force versus stretch curves that exhibit distinct monotonic, s-shape, plateau and non-monotonic snapping behaviors. We theoretically demonstrate this unique metamaterial by considering a thin soft material sheet impinged by two coun...

The enteric nervous system (ENS) autonomously controls gut muscle activity. Mechanosensitive enteric neurons (MEN) initiate reflex activity by responding to mechanical deformation of the gastrointestinal wall. MEN throughout the gut primarily respond to compression or stretch rather than to shear force. Some MEN are multimodal as they respond to compression and stretch. Depending on the region ...

Microtubule bundles cross-linked by tau protein serve a variety of neurological functions including maintaining mechanical integrity of the axon, promoting axonal growth, and facilitating cargo transport. It has been observed that axonal damage in traumatic brain injury leads to bundle disorientation, loss of axonal viability, and cognitive impairment. This study investigates the initial mechan...