A nonlinear stress-stretch relationship for a single collagen fibre in tension

A new stress-strain equation for a single, stretched collagen fibre (bundle) is developed, based on the statistical description of the fibre microstructure, down to the tropocollagen molecule level.The derivation follows previous work of Annovazzi and Genna ( 2010), but the modifications reported here both simplify and improve the final result.The model is governed by physically meaningful parameters.Comparisons between the model predictions and some available experimental results suggest that the proposed model could be of value in bioengineering applications.• in the absence of data concerning the tropocollagen molecule, the equation for the elastic behaviour at the molecular level was taken, in [AG], from a model developed for a DNA molecule, an extension of the so-called WLC model of [Bustamante et al. 2000];