Corneal hyper-viscoelastic model: Derivations, experiments, and simulations

Purpose: The aim of this study is to propose a method to construct corneal biomechanical model which is the foundation for simulation of corneal microsurgery. Methods: Corneal material has two significant characteristics: hyperelastic and viscoelastic. Firstly, Mooney–Rivlin hyperelastic model of cornea obtained based on stored-energy function can be simplified as a linear equation with two unknown parameters. Then, modified Maxwell viscoelastic model of the cornea, whose analytical form is consistent with the generalized Prony-series model, is proposed from the perspective of material mechanics. Results: Parameters of the model are determined by the uniaxial tensile tests and the stress-relaxation tests. Corneal material properties are simulated to verify the hyper-viscoelastic model and measure the effectiveness of the model in the finite element simulation. On this basis, an in vivo model of the corneal is built. And the simulation of extrusion in vivo cornea shows that the force is roughly nonlinearly increasing with displacement, and it is consistent with the results obtained by extrusion experiment of in vivo cornea. Conlusions: This paper derives a corneal hyper-viscoelastic model to describe the material properties more accurately, and explains the mathematical method for determination of the model parameters. The model is an effective biomechanical model, which can be directly used for simulation of trephine and suture in keratoplasty. Although the corneal hyper-viscoelastic model is taken as the object of study, the method has certain adaptability in biomechanical research of ophthalmology.