Orientation of smooth muscle cells with application in mechanical model of gastropod tissue

Abstract

In this paper, we determine the spatial orientation of smooth muscle cells of gastropod tissue. This together with volume fractions of smooth muscle cells and other tissue components obtained using stereological methods serves as input data for our mechanical model of gastropod tissue. The mechanical model is a composite model consisting of various components chosen to describe key features of the tissue like elasticity and viscoelasticity and preferential directions of muscle fibres. The elastic and viscoelastic constitutive parameters are identified by an automatic identification procedure based on nonlinear least squares. Numerical examples of the identification using real experimental data from uniaxial tension tests are shown.