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Mechanical characterization of 3D printed mimic of human artery affected by atherosclerotic plaque through numerical and experimental methods

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Abstract

This paper proposes a novel experimental investigation based on 3D printing to validate numerical models for biomechanics simulations. Soft elastomeric materials have been used in Polyjet multi-material 3D printer to mimicking arteries affected by atherosclerotic plaque. The nonlinear mechanical properties of five digital materials are characterized and used as an input for finite element (FE) modeling. Pressurized air is applied to the internal cavity of the printed model to reproduce the internal blood pressure in the artery. Digital Imaging Correlation is adopted to measure the displacement and deformation. A 1D linear higher-order FE model based on the Carrera Unified Formulation is compared to 3D nonlinear FE solutions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Alessandro Cassano and Nikhil Pimpalkar for assistance with the experiments set-up.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The BioRobotics Institute - Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy

    Daniele Guarnera

  2. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

    Erasmo Carrera

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, UMASS Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA

    Christopher J. Hansen & Marianna Maiarù

Authors
  1. Daniele Guarnera
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  2. Erasmo Carrera
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  3. Christopher J. Hansen
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  4. Marianna Maiarù
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Correspondence to Marianna Maiarù.

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Guarnera, D., Carrera, E., Hansen, C.J. et al. Mechanical characterization of 3D printed mimic of human artery affected by atherosclerotic plaque through numerical and experimental methods. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 20, 1969–1980 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-021-01487-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-021-01487-9

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