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A Probing Device for Quantitatively Measuring the Mechanical Properties of Soft Tissues during Arthroscopy

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Probing soft fibrous materials by indentation.

J Merson¹, N Parvez¹, R C Picu¹

¹Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, United States.

Acta Biomaterialia

|April 5, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The Hertz model accurately measures soft material stiffness with large indenters. Smaller indenters cause errors due to network compaction, requiring adjusted indentation methods for accurate stiffness and segment length measurements.

Keywords:

Indentation Network materials Size effect Stiffness

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Area of Science:

Biomaterials science
Soft matter physics
Mechanical engineering

Background:

Indentation is crucial for measuring soft material stiffness, particularly filamentary networks like the extracellular matrix.
The Hertz model is standard for elastic materials, relating force to displacement (f=kδ^1.5).

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate the applicability of the Hertz model for indentation of fiber network materials.
Determine the critical indenter size for accurate stiffness measurements.
Understand deviations from the Hertz model at smaller scales.

Main Methods:

Utilized explicit models of fiber networks to simulate indentation.
Analyzed the force-displacement curves under varying indenter radii.
Compared experimental results with Hertz model predictions.

Main Results:

The Hertz model is accurate when indenter radius > 12 times the network's mean segment length (l_c).
Smaller indenters result in a force-displacement relationship f=kδ^q, with q increasing as indenter size decreases.
A compacted network layer under the indenter alters its effective shape, causing deviations from Hertz predictions.

Conclusions:

The Hertz model can overestimate or underestimate material stiffness if the indenter size relative to network structure is not considered.
Guidelines are provided for selecting appropriate indentation conditions to ensure Hertz model validity.
The observed size effect allows for inferring the mean segment length of network materials.