Abstract
Intervertebral disc is mainly divided into two parts : nucleus pulposus surrounding by annulus fibrosus.Nucleus is relatively well described in literature, on the other hand annulus remains difficult to model due to its bi-phasic constitution coupled with an oriented fibres structure.Hydro-chemo-mechanical characterization represent a key point to reach a better understanding of this organ.To overcome this lack of knowledge, two axes are developed in this work : experimental and numerical.Cyclic tensile tests associated to digital image correlation techniques allow to obtain a large amount of data on global tissue behaviour.It permit to identify a hydro-chemo-mechanical model which takes in account the non-linear, anisotropic and dissipative behaviours.It also highlights sensibility to chemical variations in tissue environment observed experimentally.The most important point of this work is the simultaneous parameter identification performed on each sample during solicitations similar to in vivo conditions.This protocol reduce inter-individuals and inter-localisations discrepancies and leads to an accurate bundle of parameters.The formulation aims to accurately model fluid motion inside intervertebral disc tissues which is related to cell nutrition, growth and homoeostasis.This work is involved in a larger problematic about hydro-chemo-mechanical coupling within biological tissues.It will allow to quantify mechanical stimuli influence on human tissues evolution and adaptation to environment conditions.