Tais Sigaeva

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Tais Sigaeva

Contact information

Biography summary

Taisiya (Tais) Sigaeva is a Systems Design Engineering Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo.

The overall theme of her past, current and future research projects is building a bridge between real-world applications and the theory of nonlinear mechanics. She is particularly interested in how elastomers and soft biological tissues behave at nano-, micro-, macro- levels; and how this knowledge can be used to advance scientific progress. Professor Sigaeva is actively involved in several biomechanics and biomimetics related projects. One of her main research principles is that theory, simulations, and experiments are complementary, not competitive approaches as such Tais utilizes all three in her research. Finally, she strongly believes in effective multidisciplinary and collaborative practices in order to achieve success in research.

Professor Sigaeva’s specific research interests are:

1. Mechanical testing and constitutive modelling of soft biological tissues, coupling of mechanical testing devices with microscopy to observe deformation of load-bearing fiber components.

2. Quantification of intra- and inter-patient variability in soft biological tissues.

3. Modelling of buckling phenomena in elastomers and soft biological tissues.

4. Universal solution of nonlinear elasticity and their application to biomechanical problems.

5. Tunable behavior of elastomeric structures.

Target materials:

Healthy and wounded skin, healthy aortas and aneurysms, aortic valves, engineered tissues and elastomeric materials.

Research interests

  • soft tissue
  • nonlinear elasticity
  • continuum mechanics
  • mechanical testing
  • uniaxial testing
  • biaxial testing
  • residual stress
  • data analysis
  • constitutive modelling
  • cardiovascular mechanics
  • fibrous micro-structure
  • multiphoton microscopy
  • heterogeneity
  • anisotropy
  • layers
  • aneurysms
  • skin

Education

  • 2015, Doctorate, Mechnical Engineering, University of Alberta
  • 2011, Specialist (B.Sc. equiv), Mechanics, Southern Federal University

Courses*

  • BME 182 - Physics 2: Dynamics
    • Taught in 2021
  • SYDE 182 - Physics 2: Dynamics
    • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023
  • SYDE 553 - Advanced Dynamics
    • Taught in 2022

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

Selected/recent publications

  • Sigaeva T., Fiori C., Pino Alban M., Beauferris Y., Stagg D., Beddoes R., Di Martino E.S. ``Hands-on, minds-on & science-up'': a concept-based learning laboratory with a taste of research experience for an undergraduate biomedical engineering course. J. Biomech. Eng. (accepted, 2020).
  • Sigaeva T., Polzer S., Vitasek R., Di Martino E.S. Effect of testing conditions on the mechanical response of aortic tissues from planar biaxial experiments: loading protocol and specimen side. J. Mech. Behav. Biomed. (accepted, 2020).
  • Sigaeva T., Sommer G., Holzapfel G.A., Di Martino E.S. Anisotropic residual stresses. J. Roy. Soc. Interface, 16(151), pp. 20190029, 2019.
  • Sigaeva T., Di Martino E.S., Destrade M. Multisector approximation method for cardiovascular tissue mechanics: a novel approach to measure analytical residual stresses of circumferential rings with non-trivial openings. J. Roy. Soc. Interface, 16(156), pp. 20190023, 2019.
  • Sigaeva T., Kolesnikov A.M., Sudak L. Deformation of a closed hyperelastic helical spring. Int. J. Nonlinear Mech., 110, p. 1-9, 2019.
  • Sigaeva T. Note on the generality of one plane strain bending universal solution. Mech. Res. Commun., 94, 120-124, 2018.
  • Sigaeva T., Mangan R., Destrade M., Sudak L., Vergori L. Wrinkles and creases in the bending, unbending and eversion of soft sectors. Proc. Royal Soc. Lond. A, A 2018 474 20170827, 2018.
  • Destrade M., Lusettic I., Mangana R., Sigaeva T. Wrinkles in the opening angle method. Int. J. Solids Struct. 122, 189-195, 2017.
  • Sigaeva T., Czekanski A. Finite bending of a multilayered cylindrical nanosector with residual deformations. Math. Mech. Solids, 1081286516689296, 2017.
  • Sigaeva T., Czekanski A. Implementation of the surface effect in bending families. Int. J. Nonlinear Mech. 86, 112-121, 2016.
  • Sigaeva T., Schiavone P. Surface effects in anti-plane deformations of a micropolar elastic solid: Integral equation methods. Continuum Mech. Thermodyn., 28, 105-118, 2015.
  • Sigaeva T., Czekanski A. Coupling of surface effect and hyperelasticity in combined tension and torsion deformations of a circular cylinder. Int. J. Solids Struct. 85, 172-179, 2016.
  • Sigaeva T., Schiavone P. Solvability of the Laplace Equation in a Solid with Boundary Reinforcement Z. angew. Math. Phys (ZAMP), 65, 809-815, 2014.
  • Sigaeva T., Schiavone P. Influence of boundary elasticity on a couple stress elastic solid with a mode-III crack. Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 68 (2), 195-202, 2015.
  • Sigaeva T., Schiavone P. The Effect of Surface Stress on an Interface Crack in Linearly Elastic Materials. Math. Mech. Solids, 1081286514534871, 2014.
  • Sigaeva T., Schiavone P. Solvability of a theory of anti-plane shear with partially coated boundaries. Arch. Mech., 66, 113-125, 2014.
  • Karyakin M.I., Sigaeva T. Application of Genetic Algorithms to the Shape Optimization of the Nonlinearly Elastic Corrugated Membranes. In: Altenbach H., Eremeev V., eds. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Structured Materials Vol. 15. ``Shell-like Structures". Heidelberg, Berlin: Springer; 297-306, 2011.

Graduate studies