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Micromechanical Modeling of the Effective Mechanical Behavior of Cerebral Cortex Tissue

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Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Mechanical Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, a micromechanical approach is employed to propose a cerebral cortex tissue representative volume element (RVE) and simulate the mechanical behavior of this type of tissue in different loadings. In this regard, a MATLAB code is developed to homogenize a random distribution of neurons in the extracellular matrix. To create the RVE, different inputs including the size of RVE, the number of neurons, the radius of the neuron cell body, the coordinates of the axon and dendrites of a neuron, the radius of the axon and dendrites, and the minimum distance between the cellular volumes are considered. Then, a PYTHON code is developed which generates the desired RVE in ABAQUS employing the outputs of the MATLAB code. Also, a viscoelastic material model is considered for material components of the cerebral cortex tissue in this study. To analyze the developed RVE, some relaxation tests are performed on the RVE. Strain rate, neuron volume fraction (NVF), loading time and neuron distribution are investigated in different stress relaxation tests on the developed RVEs. Considering the NVF of 1, 2 and 3%, it is concluded that the maximum tensile and compressive stresses rise by increasing the NVF. Also, the results demonstrate that different irregular distributions of neurons have no effect on the bulk mechanical properties of the tissue for a constant NVF and only affect the distribution of local stresses (and even the maximum stress) in the tissue. Finally, the numerical simulations revealed that the developed RVE is a robust element which can be employed in realistic model of the brain tissue in different loading conditions such as trauma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Hamid Shahsavari, Hossein Jokar, Mojtaba Haghighi-yazdi, Mostafa Baghani & Majid Baniassadi

  2. ICube/CNRS, University of Strasbourg, 2 Rue Boussingault, 67000, Strasbourg, France

    Yves Remond, Daniel George & Majid Baniassadi

  3. Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Mazraehei Farahani

Authors
  1. Hamid Shahsavari
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  2. Hossein Jokar
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  3. Mojtaba Haghighi-yazdi
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  4. Mostafa Baghani
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  5. Yves Remond
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  6. Daniel George
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  7. Maryam Mazraehei Farahani
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  8. Majid Baniassadi
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Correspondence to Majid Baniassadi.

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Shahsavari, H., Jokar, H., Haghighi-yazdi, M. et al. Micromechanical Modeling of the Effective Mechanical Behavior of Cerebral Cortex Tissue. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Mech Eng 44, 273–285 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40997-018-0267-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40997-018-0267-5

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