Figure 7.

Finite-element modelling of the LC. These maps of the distribution of first principal strain in a slice through the LC (b–d) demonstrate that the simplifying assumption of a homogeneous, isotropic LC produces a considerably different distribution of mechanical strains across the face of the LC, whereas removing fibre orientation information but preserving spatially resolved tissue volume fraction information has less effect on computed strains. Histogram analysis (e,f) confirms this finding, as the homogeneous model has more elements experiencing lower strains, whereas the two models informed by volume fraction have very similar strain histograms.