The micromechanical behavior of lyophilized glutaraldehyde-treated bovine pericardium under uniaxial tension.

The micromechanical behavior of lyophilized glutaraldehyde bovine pericardium undergoing uniaxial tension was studied by digital image correlation. The experiments were conducted simultaneously at macromechanical and micromechanical levels, to correlate the mechanical response of this biomaterial at different scales. From the experiments, displacement and force data were acquired; in addition, an image sequence of each sample surface was registered with a high-definition camera. With the images, it was possible to obtain the vector displacement field between pairs of images and then the in-plane strain was calculated. The secant and final moduli of this material were obtained at macromechanical and micromechanical levels. A good agreement between the micro and macro moduli was observed. This analysis is a useful alternative technique for studying this biomaterial when local properties are needed for medical applications. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.