Poisson's effect

Connective tissue mechanics is highly non-linear, exhibits a strong Poisson effect and is associated with significant collagen fiber re-arrangement. Although the general features of the stress-strain behavior in tension and compression and under uniaxial, biaxial and shear loading have been discussed extensively, especially from the macroscopic perspective, the Poisson effect and the kinematics of filaments have received less attention. In general, the relationship between the microscopic fiber network mechanics and the macroscopic experimental observations remains poorly defined.