Failure Comparison between Sutured and
Intact Skin and the Determination of Suture Efficiency
Name: Sayantan Niyogi
Class: BE 210
The aim of this experiment is to determine the failure values for the normal
intact skin and the sutured skin under uniaxial load. Furthermore, it is important to tabulate the
relationship between the two different categories in terms of failure displacements,
failure force, failure stress, and failure strain.
It is hypothesized that the normal intact skin will displace further, endure greater force, stress, and strain before failure under uniaxial load. Using sutures allows the tension in the string to be a crucial factor in the total force applied to the sample. The lower half of the sutured sample will be exposed to the force from the Instron as well as the tension from the string. Therefore, this additional force will lower the required force for failure applied from the Instron.
In essence, to prove the previously stated hypothesis, a comparison between the characteristics of the running loop stitch and the normal intact skin must be performed. A t-test of significance will be implemented to determine any significant difference in the failure values between the two samples. Using this information, one will be able to conclude whether or not implementing a suture technique actually strengthens the skin properties. A possible sub-aim of the experiment is to determine the efficiency of the suture technique. For example, if the suture yields failure displacements that are half of the corresponding values of the normal intact skin, it can be determined that the suture efficiency is fifty percent. This information can potentially be quite valuable when comparing this current suture technique with more replacement methods discovered in the future.