Planar biaxial cruciform materials testing machine
ElectroForce® Planar Biaxial TestBench Bose - ElectroForce Systems Group

Download the Flash plug-in

Biomedical researchers are constantly looking to characterize and develop constitutive models to predict the mechanical behavior of new materials and compare them to biological soft tissues. This comparison and characterization is important to the development of essential tissue replacements such as tissue-engineered heart valves. Biological and tissue-derived soft biomaterials are used for many physiological, surgical, and medical device applications where rigorous constitutive models are required.

Examples include natural and prosthetic skin, myocardium, heart valves, and blood vessels. The challenge in constitutive modeling these materials is that they often exhibit mechanical anisotropy in addition to highly non-linear stress-strain relationships, large deformations, and viscoelasticity. Soft biological materials defy simple material models and require more intensive study. Bose has developed the ElectroForce® planar biaxial TestBench instrument for the characterization of such tissues and biomaterials. The instrument consists of four Bose® linear motors mounted on a horizontal baseplate and two load cells, one for each axis of loading. A heated saline bath can be added to the baseplate to provide a physiological environment, and a digital video extensometer is available for strain measurements. A simplified version of the instrument consists of two Bose linear motors and two reaction brackets as shown below.