Investigating the effects of dynamic and static loading on the stability of porcine aorta

Tortuosity of arteries can reduce the blood flow or alter its profile and considered to be a potential source for ischemia in the tissue and atherosclerosis in blood vessels. It adds to the complexity of vascular surgeries and occurs most commonly in arterial grafts. Despite the importance of arterial tortuosity biomechanics of its initiation and development is not well understood. Other studies tried to address the problem with the theory of buckling of beam-columns under static loading however it has been shown theoretically that a dynamic loading can change the buckling behavior of blood vessels and it has been predicted that under dynamic loading the buckling of arteries can occur at lower pressures. This study is a preliminary work to validate this theory by experiment. A porcine descending aorta was assembled in an inflation test set up and internal pressure was increased by two profiles: quasistatic and sinusoidal. The deformation of the artery was captured by 2 high speed cameras in 3D. Buckling in static loading was defined as the sudden change of deflection. The results show that buckling occurs at lower dynamic pressures compared to static loading.