Growth, anisotropy, and residual stresses in arteries.

A simple phenomenological theory of tissue growth is used in order to demonstrate that volumetric growth combined with material anisotropy can lead to accumulation of residual stresses in arteries. The theory is applied to growth of a cylindrical blood vessel with the anisotropy moduli derived from experiments. It is shown that bending resultants are developed in the ring cross-section of the artery. These resultants may cause the ring opening or closing after cutting the artery in vitro as it is observed in experiments. It is emphasized that the mode of the arterial ring opening is affected by the parameters of anisotropy.