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Multiscale mechanical characterization of biomimetic physically associating gels

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Abstract

The mechanical response of living tissue is important to understanding the injury-risk associated with impact events. Often, ballistic gelatin or synthetic materials are developed to serve as tissue surrogates in mechanical testing. Unfortunately, current materials are not optimal and present several experimental challenges. Bulk measurement techniques, such as compression and shear testing geometries, do not fully represent the stress states and rate of loading experienced in an actual impact event. Indentation testing induces deviatoric stress states as well as strain rates not typically available to bulk measurement equipment. In this work, a ballistic gelatin and two styrene-isoprene triblock copolymer gels are tested and compared using both macroscale and microscale measurements. A methodology is presented to conduct instrumented indentation experiments on materials with a modulus far below 1 MPa. The synthetic triblock copolymer gels were much easier to test than the ballistic gelatin. Compared to ballistic gelatin, both copolymer gels were found to have a greater degree of thermal stability. All of the materials exhibit strain-rate dependence, although the magnitude of dependence was a function of the loading rate and testing method.

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Author notes

  1. Aaron M. Forster

    Present address: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Building and Fire Research Laboratory, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Weapons & Materials Research Directorate, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, 21005, USA

    Thomas F. Juliano, Aaron M. Forster, Tusit Weerasooriya, Paul Moy & Mark R. VanLandingham

  2. PPG Industries, Inc., Allison Park, PA, 15101, USA

    Peter L. Drzal

Authors
  1. Thomas F. Juliano
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  2. Aaron M. Forster
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  3. Peter L. Drzal
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  4. Tusit Weerasooriya
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  5. Paul Moy
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  6. Mark R. VanLandingham
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark R. VanLandingham.

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Juliano, T.F., Forster, A.M., Drzal, P.L. et al. Multiscale mechanical characterization of biomimetic physically associating gels. Journal of Materials Research 21, 2084–2092 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2006.0254

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2006.0254

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