Abstract
A new constitutive model for the biomechanical behaviour of smooth
muscle tissue is proposed. The active muscle contraction is accomplished
by the relative sliding between actin and myosin filaments, comprising
contractile units in the smooth muscle cells. The model includes a
chemical part, governing the cross-bridge (myosin head) cycling, that is
responsible for the filament sliding. The number of activated
cross-bridges govern the contractile force generated and also the
contraction speed. A strain-energy function is used to describe the
mechanical behaviour of the smooth muscle tissue. Besides the active
contractile apparatus, the mechanical model also incorporates a passive
viscoelastic part. The constitutive model was calibrated with respect to
experiments on smooth muscle tissue from swine carotid artery and guinea
pig taenia coli, in terms of isometric and isotonic tensile test
results. The model was fully able to reproduce the experimental results.
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