Comparison of Hyperelastic Models for Analysis of Human and Pig Skins Behavior

The study of the mechanical behavior of skin tissue is essential for various biomedical applications, ranging from reconstructive surgery to the design of medical devices. This work compares hyperelastic energy models to characterize the mechanical behavior of human and porcine skin tissue. The analysis is based on experimental data by Gunner et al. and Lim et al., obtained from uniaxial extension tests of human and porcine skin respectively. The Beda-Chevalier step-by-step approach is combined with non-linear least squares to identify the rheological parameters of five hyperelastic energy models: Mooney-Rivlin, Yeoh, Ogden, Fung and Veronda-Westmann. The comparison between theoretical results and experimental data shows that, apart from the partial Mooney-Rivlin model, the other models offer good accuracy in representing the non-linearity of skin tissue. In particular, the Yeoh, Ogden and Veronda-Westmann models have the smallest mean errors, with values ranging from 0.029% to 0.127% for all the experimental data considered in this work. The results and conclusions provided demonstrate the importance of this study and its contribution to the choice of a hyperelastic model for skin tissue modelling, which has direct implications for biomechanics and clinical applications.