Micromechanical model of bovine Haversian bone predicts strain amplification through soft interfaces

Context. Recent observations of brown dwarf spectroscopic variability in the infrared infer the presence of patchy cloud cover. Aims. This paper proposes a mechanism for producing inhomogeneous cloud coverage due to the depletion of cloud particles through the Coulomb explosion of dust in atmospheric plasma regions. Charged dust grains Coulomb-explode when the electrostatic stress of the grain exceeds its mechanical tensile stress, which results in grains below a critical radius a < aCoulcrit being broken up. Methods. This work outlines the criteria required for the Coulomb explosion of dust clouds in substellar atmospheres, the effect on the dust particle size distribution function, and the resulting radiative properties of the atmospheric regions. Results. Our results show that for an atmospheric plasma region with an electron temperature of Te = 10 eV (≈ 105 K), the critical grain radius varies from 10-7 to 10-4 cm, depending on the grains’ tensile strength. Higher critical radii up to 10-3 cm are attainable for higher electron temperatures. We find that the process produces a bimodal particle size distribution composed of stable nanoscale seed particles and dust particles with a ≥ aCoulcrit , with the intervening particle sizes defining a region devoid of dust. As a result, the dust population is depleted, and the clouds become optically thin in the wavelength range 0:1 - 10 μm, with a characteristic peak that shifts to higher wavelengths as more sub-micrometer particles are destroyed. Conclusions. In an atmosphere populated with a distribution of plasma volumes, this will yield regions of contrasting radiative properties, thereby giving a source of inhomogeneous cloud coverage. The results presented here may also be relevant for dust in supernova remnants and protoplanetary disks.PostprintPeer reviewe

Immersed-Boundary Fluid-Structure Interaction of Membranes and Shells

This paper presents a general and robust method for the fluid-structure interaction of membranes and shells undergoing large displacement and large added-mass effects by coupling an immersed-boundary method with a shell finite-element model. The immersed boundary method can accurately simulate the fluid velocity and pressure induced by dynamic bodies undergoing large displacements using a computationally efficient pressure projection finite volume solver. The structural solver can be applied to bending and membrane-related problems, making our partitioned solver very general. We use a strongly-coupled algorithm that avoids the expensive computation of the inverse Jacobian within the root-finding iterations by constructing it from input-output pairs of the coupling variables from the previous time steps. Using two examples with large deformations and added mass contributions, we demonstrate that the resulting quasi-Newton scheme is stable, accurate, and computationally efficient.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, paper presented at EuroDyn 202

The anisotropic mechanical behaviour of electro-spun biodegradable polymer scaffolds: Experimental characterisation and constitutive formulation

Electro-spun biodegradable polymer fibrous structures exhibit anisotropic mechanical properties dependent on the degree of fibre alignment. Degradation and mechanical anisotropy need to be captured in a constitutive formulation when computational modelling is used in the development and design optimisation of such scaffolds.Biodegradable polyester-urethane scaffolds were electro-spun and underwent uniaxial tensile testing in and transverse to the direction of predominant fibre alignment before and after in vitro degradation of up to 28 days. A microstructurally-based transversely isotropic hyperelastic continuum constitutive formulation was developed and its parameters were identified from the experimental stress–strain data of the scaffolds at various stages of degradation.During scaffold degradation, maximum stress and strain in circumferential direction decreased from 1.02±0.23 MPa to 0.38±0.004 MPa and from 46±11% to 12±2%, respectively. In longitudinal direction, maximum stress and strain decreased from 0.071±0.016 MPa to 0.010±0.007 MPa and from 69±24% to 8±2%, respectively. The constitutive parameters were identified for both directions of the non-degraded and degraded scaffold for strain range varying between 0% and 16% with coefficients of determination r2&gt;0.871. The six-parameter constitutive formulation proved versatile enough to capture the varying non-linear transversely isotropic behaviour of the fibrous scaffold throughout various stages of degradation

Biotribology of the ageing skin—why we should care

Ageing of populations has emerged as one of the most pressing societal, economic and healthcare challenges currently facing most nations across the globe. The ageing process itself results in degradation of physiological functions and biophysical properties of organs and tissues, and more particularly those of the skin. Moreover, in both developed and emerging economies, population ageing parallels concerning increases in lifestyle-associated conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity and skin cancers. When considered together, these demographic trends call for even greater urgency to find clinical and engineering solutions for the numerous age-related deficits in skin function. From a tribological perspective, detrimental alterations of skin biophysical properties with age have fundamental consequences on how one interacts with the body's inner and outer environments. This stems from the fact that, besides being the largest organ of the human body, and also nearly covering its entirety, the skin is a multifunctional interface which mediates these interactions. The aim of this paper is to present a focused review to discuss some of the consequences of skin ageing from the viewpoint of biotribology, and their implications on health, well-being and human activities. Current and future research questions/challenges associated with biotribology of the ageing skin are outlined. They provide the background and motivation for identifying future lines of research that could be taken up by the biotribology and biophysics communities

The anisotropic mechanical behaviour of electro-spun biodegradable polymer scaffolds: Experimental characterisation and constitutive formulation

Electro-spun biodegradable polymer fibrous structures exhibit anisotropic mechanical properties dependent on the degree of fibre alignment. Degradation and mechanical anisotropy need to be captured in a constitutive formulation when computational modelling is used in the development and design optimisation of such scaffolds.Biodegradable polyester-urethane scaffolds were electro-spun and underwent uniaxial tensile testing in and transverse to the direction of predominant fibre alignment before and after in vitro degradation of up to 28 days. A microstructurally-based transversely isotropic hyperelastic continuum constitutive formulation was developed and its parameters were identified from the experimental stress–strain data of the scaffolds at various stages of degradation.During scaffold degradation, maximum stress and strain in circumferential direction decreased from 1.02±0.23 MPa to 0.38±0.004 MPa and from 46±11% to 12±2%, respectively. In longitudinal direction, maximum stress and strain decreased from 0.071±0.016 MPa to 0.010±0.007 MPa and from 69±24% to 8±2%, respectively. The constitutive parameters were identified for both directions of the non-degraded and degraded scaffold for strain range varying between 0% and 16% with coefficients of determination r2&gt;0.871. The six-parameter constitutive formulation proved versatile enough to capture the varying non-linear transversely isotropic behaviour of the fibrous scaffold throughout various stages of degradation

Investigating the influence of relative humidity on expression microwrinkles

The quest for efficient anti-wrinkle treatments has mainly focused on biochemical approaches aiming to mitigate or slow down the effects of both intrinsic and extrinsic ageing. However, the biophysical principles that govern the formation and evolution of wrinkles remain to be elucidated. Georges Limbert shares the findings of a study his computational biophysics group conducted with US researchers.The prospects and consequences of ageing are of concern to all, especially with regard to wrinkles. Wrinkles are not only a hallmark of ageing, with its various cosmetic and social implications, but also play a fundamental role in how people interact with many products and devices, from moisturisers and make-up, to adhesive plasters, incontinence products, razors and clothing fabrics. Unveiling the underlying biophysical principles that condition the morphologies and patterns of wrinkles are essential in evaluating, and ultimately, predicting, how ageing or aged skin interacts with its environment

Mathematical and computational modelling of skin biophysics: a review

The objective of this paper is to provide a review on some aspects of the mathematical and computational modelling of skin biophysics, with special focus on constitutive theories based on nonlinear continuum mechanics from elasticity, through anelasticity, including growth, to thermoelasticity. Microstructural and phenomenological approaches combining imaging techniques are also discussed. Finally, recent research applications on skin wrinkles will be presented to highlight the potential of physics-based modelling of skin in tackling global challenges such as ageing of the population and the associated skin degradation, diseases and traumas

A mesostructurally-based anisotropic continuum model for biological soft tissues — decoupled invariant formulation

Characterising and modelling the mechanical behaviour of biological soft tissues is an essential step in the development of predictive computational models to assist research for a wide range of applications in medicine, biology, tissue engineering, pharmaceutics, consumer goods, cosmetics, transport or military. It is therefore critical to develop constitutive models that can capture particular rheological mechanisms operating at specific length scales so that these models are adapted for their intended applications.Here, a novel mesoscopically-based decoupled invariant-based continuum constitutive framework for transversely isotropic and orthotropic biological soft tissues is developed. A notable feature of the formulation is the full decoupling of shear interactions. The constitutive model is based on a combination of the framework proposed by Lu and Zhang [Lu, J., Zhang, L., 2005. Physically motivated invariant formulation for transversely isotropic hyperelasticity. International Journal of Solids and Structures 42, 6015–6031] and the entropic mechanics of tropocollagen molecules and collagen assemblies. One of the key aspects of the formulation is to use physically-based nanoscopic quantities that could be extracted from experiments and/or atomistic/molecular dynamics simulations to inform the macroscopic constitutive behaviour. This effectively couples the material properties at different levels of the multi-scale hierarchical structure of collagenous tissues. The orthotropic hyperelastic model was shown to reproduce very well the experimental multi-axial properties of rabbit skin. A new insight into the shear response of a skin sample subjected to a simulated indentation test was obtained using numerical direct sensitivity analyses