MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF SOFT BIO-COMPOSITE LAMINATED CONSTRUCTS

Many soft tissues can be considered as laminated composite material systems where layers are reinforced by collagen fibers. The later are responsible for their anisotopic hyperelastic mechanical behavior. The amount of collagen fiber reinforcement and its spatial orientations is strongly influenced by the physiologic loading environment, such as stretch and pressure.

In this study, a new biocompatible bio-composite [1,2] material system is made from alginate-based laminated membranes reinforced with unique long collagen fibers harvested from soft corals. The mechanical tensile behavior is tested [3] showing an ability to control the hyperelastic response by the volume fraction and orientation of the collagen fibers. Hyperelastic mechanical constitutive material models are calibrated from the test data and later used with finite elements models for the analysis and bio-inspired design of different laminated bio-composite constructs. A structural test in the form of a clamped sheet subjected to normal load exerted from a rigid sphere indentation. The test is performed to verify the predictions of the FE models. The numerical models allow the examination of other construct designs closely mimicking a range of soft tissues. The proposed new collagen-based bio-composite materials combined with the mechanical models show a good potential for future bio-mimetic substitutes.

[1] Sharabi M, Mandelberg Y, Benayahu D, Benayahu Y, Azem A, Haj-Ali R. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 2014;36:71–81.

[2] Haj-Ali R, Benayahu Y, Benayahu D, Sasson-levi A, Sharabi M. WO 2013118125 A1, 2013.

[3] Sharabi M, Benayahu D, Benayahu Y, Isaacs J, Haj-Ali R. Compos Sci Technol 2015;117:268–76.