Development of novel anisotropic skin simulants
Shubham Makode, Gurpreet Singh, Arnab Chanda
Abstract
Abstract Skin tissues are anisotropic, and their mechanical characteristics vary widely depending on where they are located on the body. While some research has been conducted in the past to numerically model tissue anisotropy, anisotropic skin simulants have not been developed yet. In this work, a soft composite-based framework was employed to fabricate such simulants. Stiffer polymeric fibers were embedded in a softer polymeric matrix to generate a wide range (n = 155) of one- and two-layer skin simulants with uniform fiber volume fraction (FVF) and fiber spacings, and varying fiber orientations. Variants with different curvatures of Langar fiber lines were also simulated to study their properties. Mechanical tests were conducted to estimate the stress-stretch responses, which were compared with natural skin properties, and further characterized using isotropic and anisotropic hyperelastic formulations. The developed anisotropic skin simulants would be indispensable for accurate biomechanical testing of skin without any ethical and biosafety concerns, surgical training, and evaluation of medical interventions.