Cardiovascular Solid Mechanics

This text presents a general introduction to soft tissue biomechanics. One of its primary goals is to introduce basic analytical, experimental and computational methods. In doing so, it enables readers to gain a relatively complete understanding of the biomechanics of the heart and vasculature. Cardiovascular Solid Mechanics: Cells, Tissues, and Organs is a vital resource for courses on cardiovascular solid mechanics or soft tissue biomechanics. Focusing on the response of the heart and blood vessels to mechanical loads from the perspective of nonlinear solid mechanics, its primary goal is to integrate basic analytical, experimental, and computational methods to offer a more complete understanding of the underlying mechanobiology. While dealing primarily with cardiovascular mechanics, both the fundamental methods and many of the specific results are applicable to many different soft tissues, making this book an excellent general introduction to soft tissue biomechanics overall. Divided into three parts, Cardiovascular Solid Mechanics presents a practical and rational approach to biomechanics. Part I, Foundations, briefly reviews historical points of interest, basic molecular and cell biology, histology, and an overview of soft tissue mechanics. In order to provide not only a working framework, but also to give key references for those who wish to develop and extend biomechanics, included are mathematical preliminaries and salient results from continuum mechanics, finite elasticity, experimental mechanics, and finite elements. Part II, Vascular Mechanics, reviews the anatomy, histology, and physiology of arteries, illustrating and discussing constitutive formulations and stress analyses for healthy mature arteries. Considerable attention is given to the concept of residual stress and the mechanics of a number of vascular disorders, including atherosclerosis, aneurysms, and hypertension, as well as the mechanics of popular endovascular therapies such as balloon angioplasty. Part III, Cardiac Mechanics, reviews the requisite anatomy, histology, physiology, and pathology, and discusses the constitutive relations and stress analyses in the normal, mature heart. Finally, the book points the reader to areas of study that require more advanced theoretical, experimental, and computational methods, such as electromechanics, thermomechanics, mixture theory analysis of solid-fluid coupling, and damage mechanics. This book is designed as a text for an upper-division course on cardiovascular solid mechanics but will also serve as a good introduction to soft tissue biomechanics. Exercises at the end of each chapter will clarify complex concepts for both students and more experienced readers. Clinicians, life scientists, engineers, and mathematicians will also find this an invaluable guide, with concise and practical chapters, all of which are amply referenced. Cover illustration: Schema of a developing pathology of the arterial wall under mechanical stress.