Tom Shearer

Modelling tendon and ligament non-linear elasticity

Tendons are the connective tissues that attach muscles to bones. Ligaments have a similar function but connect two bones. They both have complex microstructures consisting of a hierarchical arrangement of collagen fibres embedded in a compliant matrix and can have varied macroscale geometries ranging from cylinders to tapered bands to hourglass shapes. The interplay between their micro- and macro-structure makes it challenging to model their mechanical behaviour. In this seminar, I will present a microscale constitutive model that can be used to predict how the structural arrangement of the collagen fibres impacts tendon and ligament stress-strain behaviour. I will explain how it can be used to infer microscale parameter values from macroscale mechanical data. Then, I will discuss its implementation in a finite element model to investigate the effects of macroscale geometry, highlighting the importance of realistic fibre alignment and how this has been neglected in the literature.