Non-invasive measurement of local stress inside soft materials with programmed shear waves

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Zhaoyi, Li, Guo-Yang, Jiang, Yuxuan, Zheng, Yang, Gower, Artur L., Destrade, Michel, Cao, Yanping
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhang, Zhaoyi
Li, Guo-Yang
Jiang, Yuxuan
Zheng, Yang
Gower, Artur L.
Destrade, Michel
Cao, Yanping
author_facet Zhang, Zhaoyi
Li, Guo-Yang
Jiang, Yuxuan
Zheng, Yang
Gower, Artur L.
Destrade, Michel
Cao, Yanping
contents Mechanical stresses in soft materials across different length scales play a fundamental role in understanding the function of biological systems and in the use of artificial materials for engineering soft machines and biomedical devices. Yet it remains a great challenge to probe local mechanical stresses in situ in a non-invasive, non-destructive manner, in particular when the mechanical properties are unknown. To address this challenge, we propose an acoustoelastic imaging-based method to infer the local mechanical stresses in soft materials by measuring the speed of shear waves induced by custom-programmed acoustic radiation force. Using a medical ultrasound transducer to excite and track the shear waves remotely, we demonstrate the application of the method by imaging uniaxial stress and bending stress in an isotropic hydrogel, and the passive uniaxial stress in a skeletal muscle. These measurements were all done without the knowledge of the constitutive parameters of the materials. These examples indicate that our method will find broad applications, ranging from health monitoring of soft structures and machines, to the diagnosis of diseases that alter stresses in soft tissues.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_03816
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Non-invasive measurement of local stress inside soft materials with programmed shear waves
Zhang, Zhaoyi
Li, Guo-Yang
Jiang, Yuxuan
Zheng, Yang
Gower, Artur L.
Destrade, Michel
Cao, Yanping
Soft Condensed Matter
Applied Physics
Mechanical stresses in soft materials across different length scales play a fundamental role in understanding the function of biological systems and in the use of artificial materials for engineering soft machines and biomedical devices. Yet it remains a great challenge to probe local mechanical stresses in situ in a non-invasive, non-destructive manner, in particular when the mechanical properties are unknown. To address this challenge, we propose an acoustoelastic imaging-based method to infer the local mechanical stresses in soft materials by measuring the speed of shear waves induced by custom-programmed acoustic radiation force. Using a medical ultrasound transducer to excite and track the shear waves remotely, we demonstrate the application of the method by imaging uniaxial stress and bending stress in an isotropic hydrogel, and the passive uniaxial stress in a skeletal muscle. These measurements were all done without the knowledge of the constitutive parameters of the materials. These examples indicate that our method will find broad applications, ranging from health monitoring of soft structures and machines, to the diagnosis of diseases that alter stresses in soft tissues.
title Non-invasive measurement of local stress inside soft materials with programmed shear waves
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03816