ArticleBiomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology2026
Integrating serial block-face SEM with voxel-based finite element analysis for high-fidelity micromechanical modelling of anisotropic soft tissues: application to human dermis.
Article in Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
While continuum fibre-reinforced constitutive models of collagen-rich soft tissues incorporate microstructural information via structure tensor invariants, most of their numerical implementations assume spatially uniform fibre orientations. This study examined how spatially heterogeneous orientations, captured by high-resolution imaging and embedded in image-based finite element models, could provide novel mechanistic insights into tissue micromechanics. Serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM) captured collagen architecture from fresh human skin dermis. Voxel-level 3D fibre orientations were extracted via structure tensor analysis. Voxel-based hexahedral meshes with element-level orientations were implemented in Abaqus/Standard with custom UMATs® user subroutines for invariant-based transversely isotropic hyperelasticity, and compared to classical models with spatially uniform fibre distributions under various loading conditions. Spatial heterogeneity significantly altered micromechanical responses. Under pseudo-homogeneous uniaxial extension aligned with the mean fibre orientation, Models 1A (uniform orientation, no dispersion), 1B (uniform orientation with dispersion), and 1C (spatially heterogeneous orientations) yielded nominal stresses at 44.6% Green-Lagrange strain differing by a factor of four (0.5, 0.8 and 2.1 MPa, respectively). Model 1C's maximum principal logarithmic strain showed a broader range with a secondary peak at 0.5 versus unimodal peaks at 0.3 for Models 1A/B. With a purely quadratic fibre energy, Model 1C recovered exponential-like macroscopic stiffening for fibre moduli of 25-500 MPa, confirming the J-shape arises from microstructural mechanism rather than through fibre material nonlinearity. The methodology delivers quantitative mechanistic insights into dermal micromechanics and generalises to a wide range of soft tissues from cornea and cartilage to arteries and lungs.
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