Rheological properties of anisotropic tissues at large amplitude oscillatory shear

The mechanical properties of soft biological tissues have been widely investigated over the past five decades [1–5]. Reported measurements of soft biological tissues such as the brain, spinal cord, liver and muscle vary by orders of magnitude, depending on the sample preparation, anisotropy and loading regime. Knowing the accurate mechanical properties of biological tissues is important for many applications, for example car crash testing and simulations require accurate information on how different parts of the body deform due to a combination of loads. Deformation of tissues around prosthetics and artificial limbs are critical in understanding load transfer at interfaces with the body. The recent use of Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) in diagnostic imaging has resulted in a surge of interest in accurate measurements of mechanical properties of tissues [6].2 page(s