Estimating material parameters of human skin in vivo

• Published in: Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Kvistedal, Y. A., Nielsen, P. M. F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.02.2009; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anisotropy; Biological and Medical Physics; Biomechanics; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Biophysics; Compressive Strength - physiology; Computer Simulation; Elastic Modulus - physiology; Engineering; Hardness - physiology; Humans; Mathematical models; Models, Biological; Original Paper; Skin; Skin Physiological Phenomena; Strain; Tensile Strength - physiology; Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Viscosity; External Mesh; Human Skin; Residual Tension; Strain Energy Function; Strain Relationship
• ISSN: 1617-7959; 1617-7940; 1617-7940
• DOI: 10.1007/s10237-007-0112-z

An accurate mathematical representation of the mechanical behaviour of human skin is essential when simulating deformations occurring in the skin during body movements or clinical procedures. In this study constitutive stress–strain relationships based on experimental data from human skin in vivo were obtained. A series of multiaxial loading experiments were performed on the forearms of four age- and gender matched subjects. The tissue geometry, together with recorded displacements and boundary forces, were combined in an analysis using finite element modelling. A non-linear optimization technique was developed to estimate values for the material parameters of a previously published constitutive law, describing the stress–strain relationship as a non-linear anisotropic membrane. Ten sets of material parameters where estimated from the experiments, showing considerable differences in mechanical behaviour both between individual subjects as well as mirrored body locations on a single subject. The accuracy of applications that simulate large deformations of human skin could be improved by using the parameters found from the in vivo experiments as described in this study.