A computational framework for network modeling of fibrous biological tissue deformation and rupture

The tremendous increase in accessible, powerful, desktop computers has raised the possibility of rapid high speed simulation of the response of fibrous biological tissue using networks of fibers to represent the load bearing component of such materials. The purpose of this paper is to present a relatively simple, robust, modeling and computational framework, based on fiber networks, which can be implemented with minimal effort by researchers in the biomechanics community, and which is relatively easy to tailor to specific applications. The advantages of such a fiber network approach are (1) the simplicity of the constitutive laws at the fiber level, for example relaxed one-dimensional Fung material laws, (2) the ability to easily incorporate effects such as fiber damage and rupture and (3) the amenability of the model to extremely rapid numerical simulation.