[A biomechanical study on human lataral capsular-ligament complex of temporomandibular joint]

Tensile mechanical experiments were made on 31 lateral capsular-ligament complex spencimens from 8 fresh temporomandibular joints of human cadavers aged 8-15 years. The tests included stress relaxation at different strain rates and tension test at constant strain rate. Some biomechanical material properties of the tissue were determined. The result showed that the complex had lower tensile strength and tensile stiffness, and the stress relaxatioin was the most important mechanism of spreading stress and absorbing shock. The stress relaxation function and the constitutive equation of stress and strain were obtained with Fung's Quasi-Linear Viscoelastic Theory fitting the experimental results.