I've been working on a simulation of a self-expanding heart stent with the same crown number, ring number, crown radius, etc., but with different strut lengths using Abaqus. The stent is expanded to a 5mm diameter, crimped, and then released to a 4mm diameter. What I observed is that shorter strut lengths lead to higher outward forces.
The way I'm calculating the outward force is by placing a sleeve outside the stent and calculating the total force exerted by the stent on the sleeve. Initially, I thought the higher force was due to the shorter strut length concentrating the force, but since I'm calculating the total force over the entire sleeve, that doesn't seem to explain it.
Could this effect be caused by the contact area or some other factor? Any insights or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
