12–17 Jul 2026
University of Graz
Europe/Vienna timezone

Mathematical Models for the Mechanics of Soft Tissues: From Linear Elasticity to Morpho-Visco-Poroelasticity

MS42-03
13 Jul 2026, 15:40
20m
02.01 - HS (University of Graz)

02.01 - HS

University of Graz

116

Speaker

Sabia Asghar (Hasselt University)

Description

Biological tissues are often subjected to forces. In many cases, such as tumor growth or skin contraction, it is crucially important to model the state of tissues that are exposed to forces in order to improve or optimize therapies for different pathologies. The simplest models use linear elasticity as a constitutive law. This linearity enables the use of the superposition principle and the use of fundamental solutions to analyze the influence of multiple points of action of forces. A clear illustration of this principle is the immersed interface method \cite{roy2020immersed}. In this presentation, we discuss this principle in terms of convergence properties using the singularity removal principle \cite{Gjerde_2019}.

However, in real-life tissues, the use of linear elasticity is too restrictive due to the presence of moisture and the porous structure of biological tissues. Furthermore, in various biomedical cases, the microstructure of the tissue changes due to cellular activity. For this reason, we construct and use a model that consists of elasticity, porosity and microstructural changes. The mathematical framework is referred to as morpho-visco-poroelasticity \cite{Hall_2008}. This framework is original and for this reason, we analyze this framework in terms of stability around equilibria \cite{Sabia2025}. Since numerical solutions can be characterized by spurious oscillations, we provide conditions for monotonicity by mathematical analysis. Furthermore, we propose a numerical stabilization method to avoid spurious oscillations on forehand.

Bibliography

@book{roy2020immersed,
author = "Roy, Somnath and De, Ashoke and Balaras, Elias",
title = "Immersed boundary method",
publisher = "Springer",
year = "2020",
series = "Computational Methods in Engineering $\&$ the Sciences",
address = "Singapore",
DOI = "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3940-4"
}

@article{Gjerde_2019,
author = {Gjerde, Ingeborg G. and Kumar, Kundan and Nordbotten, Jan M.},
doi = {10.1007/s10596-019-09899-4},
issn = {1573-1499},
journal = {Comput. Geosci.},
month = {December},
number = {2},
pages = {443–457},
publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
title = {A singularity removal method for coupled 1D–3D flow models},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10596-019-09899-4},
volume = {24},
year = {2019}
}

@phdthesis{Hall_2008,
author = {Hall, C L},
title = { Modelling of some biological materials using continuum mechanics},
school ={Queensland University of Technology},
year = {2008}
}

@InProceedings{Sabia2025,
author={Asghar, Sabia and Vermolen, Fred J},
editor={Sequeira, Ad{\'e}lia
and Silvestre, Ana
and Valtchev, Svilen S.
and Janela, Jo{\~a}o},
title={Stability of Equilibria in a One Dimensional Model for Morpho--Poroelasticity for Soft Tissues},
booktitle={Numerical Mathematics and Advanced Applications ENUMATH 2023, Volume 2},
year={2025},
publisher={Springer Nature Switzerland},
address={Cham},
pages={468--476},
isbn={978-3-031-86169-7},
doi={10.1007/978-3-031-86169-7_48}
}

Author

Sabia Asghar (Hasselt University)

Co-authors

Qiyao (Aliec) Peng (Lancaster University) Etelvina Javierre (University of Zaragoza, Spain) Fred Vermolen (HASSELT UNIVERSITY)

Presentation materials

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