Computational modeling of the uterus simulating the biomechanical behavior of pregnancy with intrauterine pressure application

Abstract

Premature birth, a severe public health issue, affects one in every ten babies worldwide. Pathological uterine distension can impose tension on the uterine wall, capable of triggering contractions and, thus, leading to premature birth. Despite the increasing use of computational models in pregnancy-related studies, a lack of experimental data and ethical concerns limit research on the mechanical properties of the uterus during gestation. This work presents a computational study of uterine growth during the second half of pregnancy. The geometric model represents the uterine body and was derived from truncated ellipsoids. The constitutive model used is anisotropic, and the tissue is considered incompressible. In this approach, the simulation is conducted by applying intrauterine pressure and simplified boundary conditions. The results obtained in the simulations reveal the evolution and deformation of the uterus with increasing intrauterine pressure.