MODELLING OF NON-LINEAR VISCOELASTIC CONTINUA WITH TRUSS SYSTEMS: APPLICATION TO BIOMECHANICS

Modelling of non-linear viscoelastic continua with truss systems: Application to Biomechanics

Dr Jose Munoz (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)

It is still a debated issue whether the mechanical response of living tissues is rather solid or fluid like. The two approaches have been proposed in the literature, either using continua or network models. In order to encompass the two points of view, we present a truss system model that can handle arbitrary viscoelastic rheological laws in a simple manner, and from which we recover the mechanical parameters of continua. The model is employed to reproduce the mechanical behaviour of lung epithelial cells.