Gao Xing, Sozumert Emrah, Shi Zhijun, Yang Guang, Silberschmidt Vadim V
Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.
College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2017 Aug 1;77:9-18. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2017.03.231. Epub 2017 Mar 27.
This work presents a numerical-experimental framework for assessment of stiffness of nanofibres in a fibrous hydrogel - bacterial cellulose (BC) hydrogel - based on a combination of in-aqua mechanical testing, microstructural analysis and finite-element (FE) modelling. Fibrous hydrogels attracted growing interest as potential replacements to some tissues. To assess their applicability, a comprehensive understanding of their mechanical response under relevant conditions is desirable; a lack of such knowledge is mainly due to changes at microscale caused by deformation that are hard to evaluate in-situ because of the dimensions of nanofibres and aqueous environment. So, discontinuous FE simulations could provide a feasible solution; thus, properties of nanofibres could be characterised with a good accuracy. An alternative - direct tests with commercial testing systems - is cumbersome at best. Hence, in this work, a numerical-experimental framework with advantages of convenience and relative easiness in implementation is suggested to determine the stiffness of BC nanofibres. The obtained magnitudes of 53.7-64.9GPa were assessed by calibrating modelling results with the original experimental data.
本研究基于水下力学测试、微观结构分析和有限元（FE）建模相结合的方法，提出了一种用于评估纤维水凝胶——细菌纤维素（BC）水凝胶中纳米纤维刚度的数值实验框架。纤维水凝胶作为某些组织的潜在替代品，受到越来越多的关注。为了评估其适用性，需要全面了解它们在相关条件下的力学响应；缺乏此类知识主要是由于纳米纤维尺寸和水环境导致变形引起的微观尺度变化难以原位评估。因此，间断有限元模拟可以提供一个可行的解决方案；这样，纳米纤维的特性可以得到较好的精确表征。另一种方法——使用商业测试系统进行直接测试——充其量也很麻烦。因此，在本研究中，建议采用一种具有实施方便和相对容易等优点的数值实验框架来确定BC纳米纤维的刚度。通过将建模结果与原始实验数据进行校准，评估得到的53.7 - 64.9GPa的数值。
