Abstract
Energy storage and dissipation by composite materials are important design parameters for sensors and other devices. While polymeric materials can reversibly store energy by decreased chain randomness (entropic loss) they fail to be able to dissipate energy effectively and ultimately fail due to fatigue and molecular chain breakage. In contrast, composite tissues, such as muscle and tendon complexes, store and dissipate energy through entropic changes in collagen (energy storage) and viscous losses (energy dissipation) by muscle fibers or through fluid flow of the interfibrillar matrix. In this paper we review the molecular basis for energy storage and dissipation by natural composite materials in an effort to aid in the development of improved substrates for sensors, implants and other commercial devices. In addition, we introduce vibrational optical coherence tomography, a new technique that can be used to follow energy storage and dissipation by composite materials without physically touching them.
Highlights
Composite materials make up the majority of the structural components found in the human body as well as in materials of construction for sensors and other industrial applications
The ability to measure the mechanical properties of composite materials is needed to understand the differences between normal and diseased tissues as well as to define engineering design criteria for construction materials
In this paper we present the results of vibrational optical coherence tomography (VOCT) studies on natural polymeric tissue composites and synthetic polymers to define the parameters that promote composite energy storage and dissipative properties
Summary
Composite materials make up the majority of the structural components found in the human body as well as in materials of construction for sensors and other industrial applications. Because of the limitations of the constant rate-of-strain tests and the invasiveness of the test, a variety of new approaches have been developed in the last two decades to attempt to characterize the mechanical properties of tissues and materials These include magnetic resonance elastography, ocular response analysis, optical coherence tomography, ultrasound elastography, surface wave optical coherence elastography and vibrational optical coherence tomography [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. In this paper we present the results of VOCT studies on natural polymeric tissue composites and synthetic polymers to define the parameters that promote composite energy storage and dissipative properties
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