Experimental characterization and constitutive modeling of the biomechanical behavior of male human urethral tissues validated by histological observations

International audienceThis work aims at observing the mechanical behavior of the membranous and spongy portions of urethrae sampled on male cadavers in compliance with French regulations on postmortem testing, in accordance with the Scientific Council of body donation center of Grenoble. In this perspective, a thermostatic water tank was designed to conduct ex vivo planar tension tests in a physiological environment, i.e., in a saline solution at a temperature of 37 ± 1 • C. In order to observe the anisotropy of the tissues, the samples were tested in two directions. Tests consisting of a series of load–unload cycles of increasing amplitudes were performed to highlight their viscous behavior. The results were then discussed according to the microstructure of tissue, which was investigated using different staining methods and histological analysis. The observed behaviors were then fitted using an anisotropic hyperelastic or a visco-hyperelastic matrix–fiber model