On residual stresses and homeostasis: an elastic theory of functional adaptation in living matter

P. Ciarletta (1, 2) , M. Destrade (3) , A. L. Gower (4, 5)

1 DALEMBERT - Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert
2 POLIMI - Politecnico di Milano [Milan]
3 School of Mathematics [Galway]
4 School of Mathematics - Department of Mathematics [Manchester]
5 School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics [Galway]

Living matter can functionally adapt to external physical factors by developing internal tensions, easily revealed by cutting experiments. Nonetheless, residual stresses intrinsically have a complex spatial distribution, and destructive techniques cannot be used to identify a natural stress-free configuration. This work proposes a novel elastic theory of pre-stressed materials. Imposing physical compatibility and symmetry arguments, we define a new class of free energies explicitly depending on the internal stresses. This theory is finally applied to the study of arterial remodelling, proving its potential for the non-destructive determination of the residual tensions within biological materials.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

P. Ciarletta, M. Destrade, A. L. Gower. On residual stresses and homeostasis: an elastic theory of functional adaptation in living matter. Scientific Reports, 2016, 6, pp.24390. ⟨10.1038/srep24390⟩. ⟨hal-01312485⟩