This project focused on the investigation of the contact mechanics of biological materials, such as skin and internal tissues, which present inhomogeneous, anisotropic, and swollen behavior. Since biological tissues are usually arranged in multi-layer strata, the assumption of homogeneous half-space behavior (common in classical contact mechanics studies) falls short in describing their continuum mechanics response, and the geometry of the contacting bodies has to be taken into account. For these reasons, in order to model the contact behavior of biological thin tissues at the level of accuracy required for scientific purposes and industrial R&D applications, a specific contact mechanics model is needed, able to deal with thin viscoelastic layers opportunely assembled to mimic the composition of real tissues.
Several real-life applications will benefit from this study as it provides, for instance, the chance to model the contact between the eyelid, the contact lens and the cornea epithelium, thus allowing for the optimization of the contact lens mechanical and biological compatibility against the surrounding tissues. By exploiting BIOCONTACT results, advanced contact mechanics studies could be led to specifically take into account for the thickness and viscoelasticity of the eyelid tissue, eventually allowing for the optimization of the lens in terms of surface roughness, thickness and adhesion energy, aiming at enhancing the final user comfort. Similarly, also the mechanical compatibility of prosthetic bones with surrounding tissues (e.g. muscles or connective tissues) will be enhanced by means of BIOCONTACT results, as the accurate prediction of the contacting normal and tangential stresses acting on the soft biological tissues provides an efficient tool to reduce bedsores in long-term bedridden patients.
For these reasons, the main objective of BIOCONTACT was to develop an advanced contact mechanics model able to accurately describe the contact behavior of elastic/viscoelastic thin layers in the presence of repulsive and adhesive interfacial interactions, which could therefore be employed in investigating the mechanical behavior of biological contacts involving thin tissues with specific interfacial interactions. Moreover, aiming at allowing the broadest possible field of applications to benefit from the project output, we sought for a parametric model which can be also adopted in studying the general-purpose contact mechanics of rubber-like materials.
