  Atherosclerotic plaque failure results from various pathophysiological
events, with the existence of fibrous cap mode I tearing in the arterial wall,
having the potential to block the aortic lumen and correspondingly induce
serious clinical conditions.The aim of this study was to quantify the
interfacial strength and critical energy release rate of the fibrous tissue
across the thickness. in this study, an inverse analysis method via finite
element modeling and simulation approach was presented. A cohesive zone model
(CZM) was applied to simulate the tearing of the fibrous cap tissue under
uniaxial tensile tests along the circumferential direction. A fiber-reinforced
hyperelastic model (Holzapfel-Gasser-Ogden) was implemented for characterizing
the mechanical properties of bulk material. With the material parameter values
of HGO model from inverse analysis process as the input for the bulk material,
the interfacial strength and critical energy release rate along the tearing
path or failure zones are obtained through the same method as material
identification process of HGO model. Results of this study demonstrate the
fibrous cap tissue tearing failure processes.
