Anisotropic elasto-damage constitutive model for the biomechanical analysis of tendons.

The aim of this work is to investigate the instantaneous mechanical response of tendons by the use of an anisotropic elasto-damage constitutive model. This study addresses the analysis of the mechanical behaviour of healthy tendons during physiological loading and to degeneration phenomena. These are correlated with aging or traumatic events such as chronic or acute overloading during sporting activities. Histo-morphometric considerations suggest the adoption of a transversally isotropic constitutive model that describes the anisotropy of the material. The non-linearity of its overall mechanical response is taken into account by using a hyperelastic approach and also evaluates softening behaviour related to damage phenomena. The values of the parameters adopted within the analytical model are estimated both for human tendons previously subjected to cyclical loading and for specimens not subjected to cyclical loading. The results obtained by adopting this analytical model are compared with the experimental data in order to evaluate the capability of the model to describe the mechanical response of the tissue.