Fig. 5.

Prescribed pressure (a) and predicted evolving responses: luminal radius (b), thickness (c and d), and circumferential and axial stress in the vessel (e and g) for a 1.5 fold increase in pressure. Degradable materials lose load-bearing ability well before full degradation, so the stress curves for external support are truncated at ≈ 60% degradation (denoted by ✗). Results compare external supports with three different degradation profiles (slow, moderate, and fast). The modulus of the support c^p = 10c^e. Adaptation without an external support (‘none’) is shown for reference. Pressure, radius and thickness are normalized by respective initial values.