Abstract
Mixtures of silicone elastomer and silicone oil were prepared and the values of their Young’s moduli, E, determined in compression. The mixtures had volume fractions, , of silicone oil in the range of 0–0.73. Measurements were made, under displacement control, for strain rates, , in the range of 0.04–3.85 s−1. The behaviour of as a function of and was investigated using a response surface model. The effects of the two variables were independent for the silicones used in this investigation. As a result, the dependence of E values (measured in MPa) on and (s−1) could be represented by . This means that these silicones can be mixed to give materials with E values in the range of about 0.02–0.57 MPa, which includes E values for many biological tissues. Thus, the mixtures can be used for making models for training health-care professionals and may be useful in some research applications as model tissues that do not exhibit biological variability.
Highlights
This article reports an investigation into the feasibility of blending silicone elastomers and silicone oils to produce materials that can be used to make physical models of biological tissues; such models are becoming increasingly important for training health-care professionals.[1,2,3]
The purpose of this article is not to investigate the interactions of silicone oils and silicone elastomers or to investigate the mechanisms by which the oils can modify the properties of the elastomer
The experiments were performed on PlatSilÓ Gel-10 silicone elastomer (Mouldlife Ltd, Suffolk, UK) blended with silicone oil (Smith’s Deadener from Mouldlife Ltd)
Summary
This article reports an investigation into the feasibility of blending silicone elastomers and silicone oils to produce materials that can be used to make physical models of biological tissues; such models are becoming increasingly important for training health-care professionals.[1,2,3] For example, they can replace human cadavers in medical education and be used to practice procedures (such as injection or surgery) before they are performed on living patients. Synthetic materials may be useful in research to mimic the mechanical behaviour of natural tissues without the biological variability.[3,4,5] the purpose of this article is not to investigate the interactions of silicone oils and silicone elastomers or to investigate the mechanisms by which the oils can modify the properties of the elastomer. Its purpose is to develop empirical rules that enable materials to be formulated whose mechanical properties resemble those of natural tissues
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