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Fatigue of self-healing hierarchical soft nanomaterials: The case study of the tendon in sportsmen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2014

Federico Bosia Open the ORCID record for Federico Bosia [Opens in a new window] ,
Matthew Merlino  and
Nicola M. Pugno
Federico Bosia
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and “Nanostructured Interfaces and Surfaces” Interdepartmental Centre, Università di Torino, Torino 10125, Italy
Matthew Merlino
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
Nicola M. Pugno*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Bio-Inspired & Graphene Nanomechanics, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, Università di Trento, Trento I-38123, Italy; Center for Materials and Microsystems, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Povo (Trento) I-38123, Italy; and School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

One of the defining properties of biological structural materials is self-healing, i.e., the ability to undergo long-term reparation after instantaneous damaging events, but also after microdamage due to repeated load cycling. To correctly model the fatigue life of such materials, self-healing must be included in fracture and fatigue laws, and related codes. Here, we adopt a numerical modelization of fatigue cycling of self-healing biological materials based on the hierarchical fiber bundle model and propose modifications in Griffith's and Paris' laws to account for the presence of self-healing. Simulations allow us to numerically verify these modified expressions and highlight the effect of the self-healing rate, in particular, for collagen-based materials such as human tendons and ligaments. The study highlights the effectiveness of the self healing process even for small healing rates and provides the possibility of improving the reliability of predictions of fatigue life in biomechanics, e.g., in sports medicine.

Keywords

self-healingfatiguefracturetendonsimulations
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 30 , Issue 1: Focus Issue: Soft Nanomaterials , 14 January 2015 , pp. 2 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

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