Abstract
A numerical method is proposed for deformation analysis of the balloon-expandable stents. An inelastic constitutive model is made from the experimental data of tension-compression tests and is incorporated into the commercial FEM code (MSC Marc/Mentat) to realize accurate prediction. Simulation study is made for the expanding behaviors of the stent made of SUS316L or pure titanium with a balloon mounted inside, and the effects of using different materials are discussed on the mechanical characteristics of the stents.
