Evaluation of residual stress in rabbit skin and the relevant material constants.

Material constants are needed in order to evaluate stresses. The material constants for orthotropic rabbit skin when residual stresses are eliminated, have been evaluated by Tong & Fung [(1976). J. Biomechanics 9, 649-657]. It is well documented that a circular skin sample taken from the human body becomes elliptical in shape. Thus, it is clear that there are residual stresses in human skin which need to be taken into consideration when evaluating the material constants. In this paper, we therefore evaluate the material constants for rabbit skin taking into account residual stresses.