TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of morphological irregularity on the mechanical behavior of interdigitated biological sutures under tension
AU - Liu, Lei
AU - Jiang, Yunyao
AU - Boyce, Mary
AU - Ortiz, Christine
AU - Baur, Jeffery
AU - Song, Juha
AU - Li, Yaning
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by United States National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant 1362893, US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) under grant FA9550-16-1-0011, and through AFOSR/Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (SFFP). MCB and CO acknowledge support from the MIT?Army Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/6/14
Y1 - 2017/6/14
N2 - Irregular interdigitated morphology is prevalent in biological sutures in nature. Suture complexity index has long been recognized as the most important morphological parameter to govern the mechanical properties of biological sutures. However, the suture complexity index alone does not reflect all aspects of suture morphology. The goal of this investigation was to determine that besides suture complexity index, whether the degree of morphological irregularity of biological sutures has influences on the mechanical properties, and if there is any, how to quantify these influences. To explore these issues, theoretical and finite element (FE) suture models with the same suture complexity index but different levels of morphological irregularity were developed. The quasi-static stiffness, strength for damage initiation and post-failure process of irregular sutures were studied. It was shown that for the same suture complexity index, when the level of morphological irregularity increases, the overall strain to failure will increase while tensile stiffness is retained; also, the total energy to fracture increases with a sacrifice in strength to damage initiation. These results reveal that morphological irregularity is another important independent parameter to govern and balance the mechanical properties of biological sutures. Therefore, from the mechanics point of view, the prevalence of irregular suture morphology in nature is a merit, not a defect.
AB - Irregular interdigitated morphology is prevalent in biological sutures in nature. Suture complexity index has long been recognized as the most important morphological parameter to govern the mechanical properties of biological sutures. However, the suture complexity index alone does not reflect all aspects of suture morphology. The goal of this investigation was to determine that besides suture complexity index, whether the degree of morphological irregularity of biological sutures has influences on the mechanical properties, and if there is any, how to quantify these influences. To explore these issues, theoretical and finite element (FE) suture models with the same suture complexity index but different levels of morphological irregularity were developed. The quasi-static stiffness, strength for damage initiation and post-failure process of irregular sutures were studied. It was shown that for the same suture complexity index, when the level of morphological irregularity increases, the overall strain to failure will increase while tensile stiffness is retained; also, the total energy to fracture increases with a sacrifice in strength to damage initiation. These results reveal that morphological irregularity is another important independent parameter to govern and balance the mechanical properties of biological sutures. Therefore, from the mechanics point of view, the prevalence of irregular suture morphology in nature is a merit, not a defect.
KW - Finite element analysis
KW - Mechanical model
KW - Morphology
KW - Suture
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2017.04.017
DO - 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2017.04.017
M3 - Article
C2 - 28457605
AN - SCOPUS:85018161306
SN - 0021-9290
VL - 58
SP - 71
EP - 78
JO - Journal of Biomechanics
JF - Journal of Biomechanics
ER -