Evolutional growth and remodeling in multiphase living tissue

It is well-known that biological systems have the capacity to change their inner structure and shape for an optimized load transfer. This paper deals with the development of a multiphase model to describe the growth and remodeling phenomenon in biological systems in order to learn more about the biological optimization mechanisms. A continuum triphasic model (i.e., a solid having interstitial space filled with water containing nutrients) based on the multiphase Theory of Porous Media (TPM) is proposed to provide a thermodynamically consistent description of the growth and remodeling phenomenon. The constitutive modeling of stress-strain- or nutrient-driven growth and remodeling phenomena is discussed. Finally, the influence of different driving mechanisms for growth is demonstrated by three illustrative exemplary problems. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.