The influence of fibre alignment on the fracture toughness of anisotropic soft tissue

•The effect of fiber orientation on the notch behavior in soft tissues is thoroughly studied.•The fibers perpendicular to the notch are most effective against notch extension.•The present study provides a way to design artificial skin with improved toughness. Finite element (FE) simulations are performed to investigate the effect of fiber induced anisotropy on the notch behavior in hyperelastic skin type materials. The modified anisotropic (MA) model is used to define the constitutive behavior in FE simulations through Abaqus user defined material model UMAT. A parametric study is carried out to examine the effect of fiber orientation, notch root radius and sample geometry on the stress field ahead of the notch tip. A non-dimensional parameter ξ is defined to characterize the combined effect of J energy and average anisotropic energy ϕaniso-avg on the notch behavior. It is shown that fibre orientation significantly influences the stress state and J-integral at the notch. The findings of the present study will be helpful in determining optimal constitution and orientation of skin grafts at locations of high stress and complex geometries, such as corner of eyes and lips, etc.