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Simulation of the Mechanical Behavior of White Matter Using a Micromechanics Finite Element Method

  • Multiscale Mechanics of Hierarchical Biological, Bioinspired, and Biomedical Materials
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Abstract

The atypical mechanical behavior of white matter and its influence on the mechanical properties of brain tissue necessitate adoption of a mutli-scale model of white matter for accurate computational analysis. Herein, we present a micromechanical analysis coupled with finite elements into a biomechanical interacting model of white matter. A representation of the white matter of central nervous system is identified and its microstructure is generated. The geometric descriptions of the axon and the surrounding matrix are obtained from neurofilament immunohistochemistry images. Consecutively, linear elastic material constitutive models are applied to describe the behavior of axons and their surrounding matrix subjected to small deformations. This model facilitates determination of the tissue’s stress and strain fields, and enables an understanding of the effects of axon undulation on local fields. The fundamental nature of the model enables future scale-up for structural tissue analysis and predictions of axon damage at the microscale.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 98 Brett Rd., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Yi Pan & Assimina A. Pelegri

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 599 Taylor Rd., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    David I. Shreiber

Authors
  1. Yi Pan
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  2. Assimina A. Pelegri
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  3. David I. Shreiber
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Pan, Y., Pelegri, A.A. & Shreiber, D.I. Simulation of the Mechanical Behavior of White Matter Using a Micromechanics Finite Element Method. MRS Online Proceedings Library 1301, 87–92 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2011.565

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2011.565

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