Material test system for the evaluation of mechanical properties of biomaterials.

A new material test system has been designed to evaluate the mechanical properties of biomaterials which are very often subject to complicated dynamic and repetitive force and deformation inside the body. The test system has high versatility, being incorporated with a miniature servo-hydraulic testing machine which can smoothly apply various modes of load and deformation to materials, and a vidicon displacement analyzer for the accurate, noncontact measurement of specimen length. A minicomputer system is used for the data acquisition and processing. Performance tests of the system and preliminary experiments on elastomeric polymers have indicated that the test system is very useful for the detailed studies of the mechanical properties of various kinds of biomaterials.