Fig. 7.

Approximating the extent of collagen fibril uncrimping. A. Illustration of wavy collagen fibrils, showing how a change in crimp angle can lead to a change in tortuosity of the fibril. B. By considering the azimuthal distribution of the sinusoid with a crimp angle equal to the predicted average change of crimp angle in the sample, a blur function can be generated. C. The blur function is convolved with the fibril orientation distribution in the loaded state, and the result compared with the initial fibril orientation distribution that has been corrected for affine changes in sample shape. A best fit is then chosen and a corresponding change in tortuosity calculated. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)