Investigation of high rate mechanical properties and damage evolution in porcine liver tissue

Each year, 6.4 million automobile accidents account for approximately 40,000 deaths in the United States. With increasing requirements for automobile safety, computational models capable of simulating organ deformation/ injury during high impact scenarios would be extremely valuable for optimizing safety measures. Accurate experimental data is essential for the accuracy of the models; however, there has been a sparse investigation into high-strain biomechanics which is necessary to address organ/tissue response in high impact scenarios. Damage threshold criterion and damage evolution are other areas that have not been well studied. In vehicular accidents, damage to the liver is the most common cause of death after abdominal injury. High fidelity computational modeling with damage predictor is thus capable of describing liver tissue that is subjected to blunt impact. In this study, we address high strain biomechanics and damage evolution of liver tissue in an effort to generate valuable meaningful FE models