The Preconditioning and Stress Relaxation of Skin Tissue

This paper reports our recent study on the preconditioning effects and stress relaxation behaviour of fresh swine skin. Uniaxial cyclic tensile loading and stress relaxation tests were performed with swine skin samples in two different directions to study the effects of fibre direction on mechanical properties. With stress relaxation tests, skin samples were loaded to different strains to observe its effects on stress relaxing over time. Mathematical modelling was performed to compare the data obtained from stress relaxation tests. Fibre direction effects were demonstrated in results of cyclic preconditioning as well as stress relaxation tests. The stress relaxation experimental results indicated that strain and time independency only appears at certain strain levels. The skin tissue has stress relaxation characteristics at strain of 15% and below. Under such strain amplitudes, the samples exhibited greater stress decaying rate in the first 200 seconds of the relaxation period, and began to approach steady decay after 200 seconds. With quasi-linear viscoelastic theory and reduced relaxation function, the modelling has adapted the experimental data sufficiently. This study is a significant step towards understanding skin tissue rheological behaviour and its multidiscipline properties.

[1]  S L Woo,et al.  A single integral finite strain viscoelastic model of ligaments and tendons. , 1996, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[2]  Richard E. Debski,et al.  An Evaluation of the Quasi-Linear Viscoelastic Properties of the Healing Medial Collateral Ligament in a Goat Model , 2004, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

[3]  Oliver A. Shergold,et al.  The uniaxial stress versus strain response of pig skin and silicone rubber at low and high strain rates , 2006 .

[4]  J A Weiss,et al.  Finite element implementation of anisotropic quasi-linear viscoelasticity using a discrete spectrum approximation. , 1998, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[5]  Alan W Eberhardt,et al.  Quasi-linear viscoelastic behavior of the human periodontal ligament. , 2002, Journal of biomechanics.

[6]  U. Hengge,et al.  Expression of naked DNA in human, pig, and mouse skin. , 1996, The Journal of clinical investigation.

[7]  B. Gilchrest,et al.  Detection of UV-induced pigmentary and epidermal changes over time using in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy. , 2006, The Journal of investigative dermatology.

[8]  Yan-Jun Zeng,et al.  Biomechanical properties of skin in vitro for different expansion methods. , 2004, Clinical biomechanics.

[9]  C. Frank,et al.  Water content alters viscoelastic behaviour of the normal adolescent rabbit medial collateral ligament. , 1992, Journal of biomechanics.

[10]  S L Woo,et al.  The time and history-dependent viscoelastic properties of the canine medical collateral ligament. , 1981, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[11]  D McComb,et al.  Development of a pericardial acellular matrix biomaterial: biochemical and mechanical effects of cell extraction. , 1994, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[12]  Y Lanir,et al.  Time-dependent mechanical behavior of sheep digital tendons, including the effects of preconditioning. , 2002, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[13]  Peter Elsner,et al.  Bioengineering of the skin : skin biomechanics , 2002 .

[14]  S. Hsu,et al.  Viscoelastic studies of extracellular matrix interactions in a model native collagen gel system. , 1994, Biorheology.

[15]  J. Bischoff,et al.  Anomalous rate dependence of the preconditioned response of soft tissue during load controlled deformation. , 2007, Journal of biomechanics.

[16]  E. A. Trowbridge,et al.  The mechanical response of glutaraldehyde-fixed bovine pericardium to uniaxial load , 1985 .

[17]  S. Woo,et al.  On the viscoelastic properties of the anteromedial bundle of the anterior cruciate ligament. , 1993, Journal of biomechanics.

[18]  D. H. Campen,et al.  The constitutive behaviour of passive heart muscle tissue: a quasi-linear viscoelastic formulation. , 1991, Journal of biomechanics.

[19]  E. Carew,et al.  The Effect of Strain Rate on the Viscoelastic Response of Aortic Valve Tissue: A Direct-Fit Approach , 2004, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

[20]  M. Sacks,et al.  Changes in the Biaxial Viscoelastic Response of the Urinary Bladder Following Spinal Cord Injury , 2004, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.