Instron Tensile Testing: Comparing
Sutured to Non-Sutured Chicken Skin
Name: Joseph
Schwartz
Class: BE 210
The central hypothesis of the experiment will be that the stiffness and elastic modulus of similar pieces of chicken skin will not be significantly different. Stiffness is a structural property, which takes into account both force and deformation. While structural properties are load dependent and sample size dependent, if the samples are kept the same size and the loaded at the same rate, the stiffness of each group should not be significantly different if the sutured skin truly has similar properties to the non-sutured skin. The elastic modulus is another verification of the similar properties of the two groups, since it is a material property and relates the stress a material can withstand per strain.
Other goals include:
Determining the structural and material properties of sutured chicken skin. These include the failure properties (displacement, force, stress, strain) as well as the elastic modulus and stiffness. These properties of the sutured chicken skin will be useful in comparing them to non-sutured chicken skin as well as for researchers and surgeons who need to evaluate the performance of the sutures.
Deducing what the properties of the sutured sample could mean for real-life, practical applications. This is what researchers and surgeons must do when determining the quality of the sutures since large deformation may lead to scarring while an inability to withstand stress could lead to rupturing of sutures.