Abstract

Tendons are connective tissues between muscle and bone. Despite their important function in load-bearing, tendons often get damaged and their mechanical behaviour is still not fully understood. Tendons are made up of 50-70% water and a collagen-heavy solid matrix, and undergo large deformations. In this talk I will present a nonlinear poroelastic framework to capture the bulk mechanics of the tissue, and explore how the response to cyclic and static loading is affected by changes to the solid stress law. In particular, we investigate material heterogeneity as a representation of bulk damage to the tissue, and the effect of fibre recruitment. The results are discussed within the framework of tendon mechanics, however the model and modifications to it may be applied to other biological tissues as well as geological systems.