An orthotropic elastic model for rat abdominal aorta

Assuming the arterial wall is elastic, homogeneous and incompressible material, an orthotropic strain energy function for rat abdominal artery has been presented. Solving the problem of simultaneous inflation and axial stretch of a cylindrical artery, and then comparing the theoretical results with experiments the numerical values of material coefficients are obtained. Using the least-square error method, within the range of admissible physiological loading, the maximum deviation between the theory and experiment is found to be <3%, which seems to be a fairly good approximation. The variation of circumferential stress and incremental pressure modulus with inner pressure are also reported in the work. Unlike dog abdominal artery, the relation between the incremental modulus and intramural pressure is curvilinear.