Fig. 3.

Physiological mechanical behavior of blood vessels. A) Pressure-diameter behavior of an artery: Soft elastin fibers dominate the response under low pressure states (<80 mmHg) while stiff collagen fibers dominate the response beyond the physiological range avoiding vessel damage. Loading and unloading curves represents the hysteresis phenomena; B) Microstructure of the vessel wall highlighting the specific alignment of the fibrous components responsible for the anisotropy behavior: in the media layer fibers are circumferentially aligned while in the adventitia layer fibers are less dense and organized [[71], [72], [73]]. Reproduced from Ref. [71] with permission from Elsevier.