Sharif Digital Repository

The main goal of this study is to investigate the role of vascular graft thickness in wall stress gradient in anastomosis region. Atherosclerosis is a common heart disease causes high mortality rates every year. The gold standard treatment of atherosclerosis is replacing with autologous vein extracted from patient's body. Since proper autologous vein is limited, researchers have made efforts to achieve compliance engineered blood vessels. Mechanical stress has great effect on both smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells and it is considered as a stimulus in plaque formation. In this study, we evaluate the role of thickness in wall stress of anastomosis region. For this purpose, two... 

This paper deals with analytical thermomechanical stress analysis of adhesively bonded composite joints in presence of a structural imperfection in the form of an interfacial void within the adhesive layer based on the full layerwise theory (FLWT). The joints are subjected to mechanical tension, uniform temperature change, or steady-state heat conduction. The proposed adhesive joint is divided into three distinct regions along its length and a large number of mathematical plies through its thickness. Three sets of fully coupled governing equilibrium equations are derived employing the principle of minimum total potential energy. The three-dimensional nonlinear interlaminar stress... 

The technological and clinical need for orthopedic replacement materials has led to significant advances in the field of nanomedicine, which embraces the breadth of nanotechnology from pharmacological agents and surface modification through to regulation and toxicology. A variety of nanostructures with unique chemical, physical, and biological properties have been engineered to improve the functionality and reliability of implantable medical devices. However, mimicking living bone tissue is still a challenge. The scope of this review is to highlight the most recent accomplishments and trends in designing nanomaterials and their applications in orthopedics with an outline on future directions... 

Porous shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit the interesting characteristics of porous metals together with shape memory effect and pseudo-elasticity of SMAs that make them appropriate for biomedical applications. In this paper, a 3-D phenomenological constitutive model for the pseudo-elastic behavior and shape memory effect of porous SMAs is developed within the framework of irreversible thermodynamics. Comparing to micromechanical and computational models, the proposed model is computationally cost effective and predicts the behavior of porous SMAs under proportional and non-proportional multiaxial loadings. Considering the pressure dependency of phase transformation in porous SMAs, proper... 

Axon is an important part of the neuronal cells and axonal microtubules are bundles in axons. In axons, microtubules are coated with microtubule-associated protein tau, a natively unfolded filamentous protein in the central nervous system. These proteins are responsible for cross-linking axonal microtubule bundles. Through complimentary dimerization with other tau proteins, bridges are formed between nearby microtubules creating bundles. Formation of bundles of microtubules causes their transverse reinforcement and has been shown to enhance their ability to bear compressive loads. Though microtubules are conventionally regarded as bearing compressive loads, in certain circumstances during... 

Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys (MSMAs) are a category of active materials which can be excited by magnetic field. These alloys have been used in sensor and actuator applications recently. MSMAs possess special properties such as large magnetic field-induced strains (up to %10) and high actuation frequency (about 1kHz), while ordinary shape memory alloys can't act in frequencies above 5Hz due to the time involved with heat transformation. In this paper, MSMAs are modeled by an incremental modeling approach which utilizes different secant moduli for different parts of stress-strain curve. Furthermore, stress-strain curve of MSMAs is approximated using an analytical expression. The incremental... 

In this paper, the continuum damage mechanics model originally proposed by Lemaitre (Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology. 1985; 107: 83-89) is presented through an adaptive finite element method for three-dimensional ductile materials. The macro-crack initiation-propagation criterion is used based on the distribution of damage variable in the continuum damage model. The microcrack closure effect is incorporated to simulate the damage evolution more realistic. The Zienkiewicz-Zhu posteriori error estimator is employed in conjunction with a weighted Superconvergence Patch Recovery (SPR) technique at each patch to improve the accuracy of error estimation and data transfer process.... 

In this paper, some basis-free expressions for the material time derivative of Lagrangian stress tensors are presented which are generally valid in all cases of coalescent principal stretches. The material is assumed to be elastic and isotropic  

There has been a rising trend towards robotic tele-surgery operations in recent years. A major concern, however, is the lack of direct contact between the surgeon and patient's body. Several researchers have proposed various designs of tactile sensors for surgical instruments to improve the dexterity of surgeons. Previously designed sensors, however, are mostly suitable for instruments with small contact areas. In this paper, a novel tactile sensor is introduced in integration with the teeth of a surgical grasper for large organs. It includes strain gauges embedded underneath a toothed plate, which also act as grasping teeth of the jaws of the instrument. The thickness of the plate and the... 

The coupling of rock and thermal stresses along with fluid pressure are particularly important in fractured rock masses, since stress-induced changes in permeability can be large and irreversible under perturbations resulting from various natural and induced activities. A new method is presented to model fracture permeability changes during drilling in fractured rocks. The approach includes finite element method (FEM) for fully coupled thermo-poroelastic analysis of stress distribution around borehole and displacement discontinuity method (DDM) to model fracture deformation. Three cases of overbalanced, underbalanced, and balanced drilling fluid pressure conditions are employed. The... 

In this research, the characteristics of the prepared samples in epoxy matrix by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), as well as scanning electron microscope (SEM) are evaluated. Meanwhile, the obtained mechanical properties of the specimen are investigated. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is also employed to evaluate the thermal degradation of manufactured nanocomposites. The thermal neutron absorption properties of nanocomposites containing 3 wt% of montmorillonite nanoclay (closite30B) have been studied experimentally, using an Am-Be point source. Mechanical tests reveal that the higher B4C concentrations, the more tensile strengths, but lower... 

In the present study, we investigate the effect of the hemodynamic factors of the blood flow on the cerebral aneurysms. To this end, a hypothetical geometry of the aneurysm in the circle of Willis, located in the bifurcation point of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) and anterior communicating artery (ACoA) is modeled in a three-dimensional manner. Three cases are chosen in the current study: an untreated thin wall (first case), untreated thick wall (second case), and a treated aneurysm (third case). The effect of increasing the aneurysm wall thickness on the deformation and stress distribution of the walls are studied. The obtained results showed that in the second case, a reduction in the... 

An essential input to the musculoskeletal (MS) trunk models that estimate muscle and spine forces is kinematics of the thorax, pelvis, and lumbar vertebrae. While thorax and pelvis kinematics are usually measured via skin motion capture devices (with inherent errors on the proper identification of the underlying bony landmarks and the relative skin-sensor-bone movements), those of the intervening lumbar vertebrae are commonly approximated at fixed proportions based on the thorax-pelvis kinematics. This study proposes an image-based kinematics measurement approach to drive subject-specific (musculature, geometry, mass, and center of masses) MS models. Kinematics of the thorax, pelvis, and... 

In this paper, a constitutive and micromechanical model for prediction of rate-dependent behavior of connective tissues (CTs) is presented. Connective tissues are considered as nonlinear viscoelastic material. The rate-dependent behavior of CTs is incorporated into model using the well-known quasi-linear viscoelasticity (QLV) theory. A planar wavy representative volume element (RVE) is considered based on the tissue microstructure histological evidences. The presented model parameters are identified based on the available experiments in the literature. The presented constitutive model introduced to ABAQUS by means of UMAT subroutine. Results show that, monotonic uniaxial test predictions of... 

To characterize the role of specimen disturbance and structure in the hydromechanical behavior of collapsible soils, two sets of wetting-induced collapse and suction-controlled triaxial tests were conducted on intact and reconstituted specimens of a loessial soil taken from a loess deposit in Gorgan, a city in the northeastern Golestan province of Iran. The testing approach used an advanced triaxial testing device that was specifically modified to control pressures applied to a soil specimen and to monitor and measure the amount of changes in volume and water content of the soil specimens during testing using highly sensitive digital sensors with an accuracy of 60.01 cm3. Results of the... 

Three-dimensional thermo-mechanical stress analysis of composite joints with bi-adhesive bonding is presented using the full layerwise theory. Based on three-dimensional elasticity theory, sets of fully coupled governing differential equations are derived using the principle of minimum total potential energy and are simultaneously solved using the state space approach. Results show that bi-adhesive bonding substantially relieves the edge effects. Moreover, series of parametric studies reveal the nonlinear effects of bonding length ratio and the relative stiffness and coefficient of thermal expansion of the mid- and side-adhesives. It is also concluded that the optimum design of a bi-adhesive... 

Background: The researches regarding the influence of microthread design variables on the stress distribution in bone and a biomechanically optimal design for implant neck are limited. The aim of the present study is to compare the effect of different microthread designs on crestal bone stress. Materials and Methods: Six implant models were constructed for three-dimensional finite element analysis including two thread profile (coarse and fine) with three different lengths of microthreaded neck (1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm). A load of 200 N was applied in two angulations (0° and 30°) relative to the long axis of the implant and the resultant maximum von Mises equivalent (EQV), compressive, tensile,... 

Obstruction of left anterior descending artery (LAD) due to the thrombosis or atherosclerotic plaques is the leading cause of death worldwide. Targeted delivery of drugs through micro- and nanoparticles is a very promising approach for developing new strategies in clot-busting or treating restenosis. In this work, we modelled the blood flow characteristics in a patient-specific reconstructed LAD artery by the fluid–solid interaction method and based on physiological boundary conditions. Next, we provided a Lagrangian description of micro- and nanoparticles dynamics in the blood flow considering their Brownian motion and the particle–particle interactions. Our results state that the number of... 

In this paper an integrated model has been developed that is capable of considering the effects of process parameters on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the work-roll and the strip during hot rolling operations. The commercially finite element package ABAQUS is utilized to solve the governing equations, while an elasto-viscoplastic material behaviour is utilized in the model. The model may be employed in single-pass as well as multi-pass rolling layouts. Various aspects of the hot rolling process are predicted including temperature field and thermo-mechanical stresses within the work-roll as well as temperature, strain, and residual stresses distributions within the strip. To assess the... 

In this paper, an adaptive finite element analysis is presented for 3D modeling of non-planar curved crack growth. The fracture mechanical evaluation is performed based on a general technique for non-planar curved cracks. The Schollmann's crack kinking criterion is used for the process of crack propagation in 3D problems. The Zienkiewicz-Zhu error estimator is employed in conjunction with a weighted SPR technique at each patch to improve the accuracy of error estimation. Applying the proposed technique to 3D non-planar curved crack growth problems shows significant improvements particularly at the boundaries and near crack tip regions. Several numerical examples are presented to illustrate...