Deformation mechanisms of prototype composite braided stent-grafts in bending fatigue for peripheral artery application.

Stent-grafts in peripheral arteries suffer from complex cyclic loadings in vivo, including pulsatile, axial bending and torsion. Normal fatigue durability evaluation technologies, however, are majorly based on pulsation and thus are short of accuracy under the complicated stress conditions experienced physiologically. While there is a little research focused on the cyclic fatigue of stent-grafts in bending, it remains an almost total lack of deformation or fatigue mechanisms. In this work, composite braided stent-grafts incorporating Nitinol (NiTi) yarns and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) multifilament yarns were cycled in bending by the self-developed testing system to investigate their deformation behaviors. Deformation mechanisms at the yarn level were discussed, and NiTi yarn crossover structure was considered the primary factor affecting the deformation modes. Four yarn-crossover-based deformation modes (accordion buckling, diamond-shaped buckling, neck propagation and microbuckling) revealed the mechanisms of energy absorption of braided stent-grafts on the mesoscopic scale. Further, mechanical modes were applied to help regulate stent designs.