Journal article
Investigation of the observed rupture lines in abdominal aortic aneurysms using crack propagation simulations
Journal of biomechanical engineering, Vol.141(7), 071004
05/31/2019
DOI: 10.1115/1.4043940
PMID: 31150536
Abstract
To use crack propagation simulation to study the rupture site characteristics in ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).
Rupture lines were precisely documented in four ruptured AAA harvested whole from cadavers. Wall thickness and material parameters were experimentally determined. Using subject-specific 3D geometry and subject-specific finite elastic model parameters, crack propagation simulations were conducted based on basic fracture mechanics principles to investigate if and how localized weak spots may have led to the observed rupture lines.
When an initial crack was imposed at the site of peak wall stress, the propagated path did not match the observed rupture line. This indicates that in this study population, the peak wall stress was unlikely to have caused the observed rupture. When cracks were initiated at random locations in the AAA along random orientations for random initial lengths, the orientation of the resulting propagated rupture line was consistently longitudinal. This suggests that the AAA morphology predisposes the AAA to rupture longitudinally, which is consistent with observations. It was found that, in this study population, rupture may have initiated at short segments of less than about 1 cm that then propagated to form the observed rupture lines. This suggests that ex vivo experimental and in vivo elastography studies should seek a spatial resolution (approx. 1 cm) to reliably identify weak spots in AAA. The small study population and lack of a reliable failure model for AAA tissue make these findings preliminary.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Investigation of the observed rupture lines in abdominal aortic aneurysms using crack propagation simulations
- Creators
- Siamak Attarian - University of IowaShaoping Xiao - University of IowaTimothy Chung - Universidade de São PauloErasmo Simão da Silva - University of IowaMadhavan L Raghavan - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of biomechanical engineering, Vol.141(7), 071004
- DOI
- 10.1115/1.4043940
- PMID
- 31150536
- NLM abbreviation
- J Biomech Eng
- ISSN
- 0148-0731
- eISSN
- 1528-8951
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/31/2019
- Academic Unit
- Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering; Iowa Technology Institute; Mechanical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984195178002771
Metrics
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