Modelling and simulation of porcine liver tissue indentation using finite element method and uniaxial stress-strain data

We hypothesize that both compression and elongation stress-strain data should be considered for modeling and simulation of soft tissue indentation. Uniaxial stress-strain data were obtained from in vitro loading experiments of porcine liver tissue. An axisymmetric finite element model was used to simulate liver tissue indentation with tissue material represented by hyperelastic models. The material parameters were derived from uniaxial stress-strain data of compressions, elongations, and combined compression and elongation of porcine liver samples. in vitro indentation tests were used to validate the finite element simulation. Stress-strain data from the simulation with material parameters derived from the combined compression and elongation data match the experimental data best. This is due to its better ability in modeling 3D deformation since the behavior of biological soft tissue under indentation is affected by both its compressive and tensile characteristics. The combined logarithmic and polynomial model is somewhat better than the 5-constant Mooney-Rivlin model as the constitutive model for this indentation simulation.