Fig 3. Model preparation before solving the wound healing problem.
(a) Modeled square tissue patch, with symmetric boundary conditions along x = 0 and y = 0 and mechanical constitutive parameters corresponding to unwounded skin. (b) Unwounded skin patch in its in vivo state (i.v.), characterized by an equi-biaxial pre-stretch. (c) Wound infliction in vivo, obtained by setting the mechanical parameters in a circular tissue region to extremely small values; the values of the biochemical and microstructural quantities (α, c, ρ, ϕc) are also adjusted to reflect a freshly-wounded tissue. Note that, immediately after infliction, the wound enlarges due to the corresponding release of tissue pre-stretch, as shown in the inset (white dashed line vs. boundary of the blue region). The reached deformation is made permanent to ensure that the newly-deposited tissue has no initial stress.