Identification of the mechanical parameters for the human uterus in vivo using intrauterine pressure measurements.

There are limited experimental data to characterize the mechanical response of human myometrium. A method is presented in this work to identify mechanical parameters describing the active response of human myometrium from the in vivo intrauterine pressure measurements. The human uterine contraction during labor is simulated by implementing a coupled model in a finite element scheme, and the intrauterine pressure is evaluated as the outcome.

Simulating uterine contraction by using an electro-chemo-mechanical model.

Contractions of uterine smooth muscle cells consist of a chain of physiological processes. These contractions provide the required force to expel the fetus from the uterus. The inclusion of these physiological processes is, therefore, imperative when studying uterine contractions.

A continuum model for excitation-contraction of smooth muscle under finite deformations.

The main focus in most of the continuum based muscle models is the mechanics of muscle contraction while other physiological processes governing muscle contraction, e.g., cell membrane excitation and activation, are ignored.

A continuum model for skeletal muscle contraction at homogeneous finite deformations.

The contractile force in skeletal muscle models is commonly postulated to be the isometric force multiplied by a set of experimentally motivated functions which account for the muscle's active properties. Although both flexible and simple, this approach does not automatically guarantee a thermodynamically consistent behavior. In contrast, the continuum mechanical model proposed herein is derived from fundamental principles in mechanics and guarantees a dissipative behavior.