Mechanical Properties of Stapedial Tendon in Human Middle Ear

Abstract

Measurement on mechanical properties of the stapedial tendon in human middle ear has not been reported in the literature. In this paper, we used the material testing system to conduct uniaxial tensile, stress relaxation, and failure tests on stapedial tendon specimens harvested from human temporal bones. The digital image correlation method was employed to assess the boundary effect on experimental data. The stress-strain relationship of the tendon obtained from experiments was analyzed using the hyperelastic Ogden model. The results presented include (1) the constitutive equation of the tendon for stretch ratio of 1-1.4 or stress range of 0-1.45 MPa, (2) the mean ultimate stress and stretch ratio of the tendon at 4.04 MPa and 1.65, respectively, and (3) the hysteresis and normalized stress relaxation function of the tendon. The data reported in this paper contribute to ear mechanics, especially for theoretical analysis of human ear function.