A purely mechanical approach to the formation and propagation of aneurysms

One of the main problems occurring in the aorta is the development of aneurysms, in which case the artery wall thickens and its diameter increases. Suffice to say that many other factors may be involved in this process. These include, amongst others, geometry, non-homogeneous material, anisotropy, growth, remodeling, age, etc. In this talk, we examine the bifurcation of inflated thick-walled cylindrical shells under axial loading and its interpretation in terms of the mechanical response of arterial tissue and the formation and propagation of aneurysms. We will show that this mechanical approach is able to capture features of the mechanisms involved during the formation and propagation of aneurysms.