Special Issue on Advances in Cardiovascular Biomechanics

Excerpt

It gives us great pleasure to introduce this Special Issue of Experimental Mechanics focused on Cardiovascular Biomechanics. In this issue, we present a sampling of research in the field where experimental approaches to material characterization play a key role. While the materials and structures of interest may be unfamiliar to those outside our field – fibrous proteins such as collagen and elastin, tissues and organs including the myocardium, heart valves, and blood vessels throughout the body – the processes we investigate are familiar to those of you whose interests lie in classical engineering materials. In particular, processes of material degradation, damage, and failure often lead to severe clinical consequences in biological systems: an example is the rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysms, an issue addressed by Pavey and colleagues in the Wagenseil group in their study of the elastin stabilizing agent pentagalloyl glucose, as well as in a study by Lane and colleagues on the relationship of aneurysm curvature and rupture. Many biological soft tissues are fiber-reinforced composite materials arranged in sheets, and delamination of layers is an important failure mechanism investigated by the Avril group in France in their study of aortic wall dissection. The microstructural aspects of this failure mechanism are further elucidated by the work of Wang and colleagues at Boston University, focusing on the importance of elastin fibers in interlamellar bonding. Other heterogeneities in soft tissues include the interaction of stiff calcifications and fibrous matrix material, which was investigated by Furtunato and colleagues with regard to failure in cerebral tissue. …