My research focuses on understanding rotator cuff tendon tear growth mechanics using full-volume strain-probing methods and data-driven modeling. By comparing intact and torn tendons, I have shown that shear strains are high at the boundaries of attached/detached tissue, and that delamination could be a potential tear-growth inducing mechanism. In addition, rotator cuffs are highly heterogenous materials, as confirmed by my displacement maps, which benefit from full-volume inverse characterization. In my inverse characterization pipeline, I employ variational system identification, which has shown that non-linear terms are needed to replicate the complexity of these materials. To achieve accurate results, my research involves parameter tuning with partial differential equation constrained optimization.
I love nature and animals, and have a dog of my own. His name is Loki and he is a good boy!
Mentor
Ellen Arruda