An orthotropic viscoelastic material model for passive myocardium: theory and algorithmic treatment

This contribution presents a novel constitutive model in order to simulate an orthotropic rate-dependent behaviour of the passive myocardium at finite strains. The motivation for the consideration of orthotropic viscous effects in a constitutive level lies in the disagreement between theoretical predictions and experimentally observed results. In view of experimental observations, the material is deemed as nearly incompressible, hyperelastic, orthotropic and viscous. The viscoelastic response is formulated by means of a rheological model consisting of a spring coupled with a Maxwell element in parallel. In this context, the isochoric free energy function is decomposed into elastic equilibrium and viscous non-equilibrium parts. The baseline elastic response is modelled by the orthotropic model of Holzapfel and Ogden [Holzapfel GA, Ogden RW. 2009. Constitutive modelling of passive myocardium: a structurally based framework for material characterization. Philos Trans Roy Soc A Math Phys Eng Sci. 367:3445–3475]. The essential aspect of the proposed model is the account of distinct relaxation mechanisms for each orientation direction. To this end, the non-equilibrium response of the free energy function is constructed in the logarithmic strain space and additively decomposed into three anisotropic parts, denoting fibre, sheet and normal directions each accompanied by a distinct dissipation potential governing the evolution of viscous strains associated with each orientation direction. The evolution equations governing the viscous flow have an energy-activated nonlinear form. The energy storage in the Maxwell branches has a quadratic form leading to a linear stress–strain response in the logarithmic strain space. On the numerical side, the algorithmic aspects suitable for the implicit finite element method are discussed in a Lagrangian setting. The model shows excellent agreement compared to experimental data obtained from the literature. Furthermore, the finite element simulations of a heart cycle carried out with the proposed model show significant deviations in the strain field relative to the elastic solution.