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@ARTICLE{Ji:1007668,
author = {Ji, Fengting and Bansal, Manik and Wang, Bingrui and Hua,
Yi and Islam, Mohammad R. and Matuschke, Felix and Axer,
Markus and Sigal, Ian A.},
title = {{A} direct fiber approach to model sclera collagen
architecture and biomechanics},
journal = {Experimental eye research},
volume = {232},
issn = {0014-4835},
address = {London},
publisher = {Academic Press},
reportid = {FZJ-2023-02151},
pages = {109510 -},
year = {2023},
abstract = {Sclera collagen fiber microstructure and mechanical
behavior are central to eye physiology and pathology. They
are also complex, and are therefore often studied using
modeling. Most models of sclera, however, have been built
within a conventional continuum framework. In this
framework, collagen fibers are incorporated as statistical
distributions of fiber characteristics such as the
orientation of a family of fibers. The conventional
continuum approach, while proven successful for describing
the macroscale behavior of the sclera, does not account for
the sclera fibers are long, interwoven and interact with one
another. Hence, by not considering these potentially crucial
characteristics, the conventional approach has only a
limited ability to capture and describe sclera structure and
mechanics at smaller, fiber-level, scales. Recent advances
in the tools for characterizing sclera microarchitecture and
mechanics bring to the forefront the need to develop more
advanced modeling techniques that can incorporate and take
advantage of the newly available highly detailed
information. Our goal was to create a new computational
modeling approach that can represent the sclera fibrous
microstructure more accurately than with the conventional
continuum approach, while still capturing its macroscale
behavior. In this manuscript we introduce the new modeling
approach, that we call direct fiber modeling, in which the
collagen architecture is built explicitly by long,
continuous, interwoven fibers. The fibers are embedded in a
continuum matrix representing the non-fibrous tissue
components. We demonstrate the approach by doing direct
fiber modeling of a rectangular patch of posterior sclera.
The model integrated fiber orientations obtained by
polarized light microscopy from coronal and sagittal
cryosections of pig and sheep. The fibers were modeled using
a Mooney-Rivlin model, and the matrix using a Neo-Hookean
model. The fiber parameters were determined by inversely
matching experimental equi-biaxial tensile data from the
literature. After reconstruction, the direct fiber model
orientations agreed well with the microscopy data both in
the coronal plane (adjusted R2 = 0.8234) and in the sagittal
plane (adjusted R2 = 0.8495) of the sclera. With the
estimated fiber properties (C10 = 5746.9 MPa; C01 = -5002.6
MPa, matrix shear modulus 200 kPa), the model's
stress-strain curves simultaneously fit the experimental
data in radial and circumferential directions (adjusted R2's
0.9971 and 0.9508, respectively). The estimated fiber
elastic modulus at $2.16\%$ strain was 5.45 GPa, in
reasonable agreement with the literature. During stretch,
the model exhibited stresses and strains at sub-fiber level,
with interactions among individual fibers which are not
accounted for by the conventional continuum methods. Our
results demonstrate that direct fiber models can
simultaneously describe the macroscale mechanics and
microarchitecture of the sclera, and therefore that the
approach can provide unique insight into tissue behavior
questions inaccessible with continuum approaches.},
cin = {INM-1},
ddc = {610},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)INM-1-20090406},
pnm = {5251 - Multilevel Brain Organization and Variability
(POF4-525)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-5251},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
pubmed = {37207867},
UT = {WOS:001009422800001},
doi = {10.1016/j.exer.2023.109510},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1007668},
}