TY - THES ID - 135804542 TI - Design and development of a biaxial testing setup for small soft tissue samples. AU - Gulickx, Milan AU - Al-Bender, Farid AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen. Opleiding Master in de ingenieurswetenschappen. Werktuigkunde (Leuven) PY - 2017 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:135804542 AB - Recent developments on biofidelic finite element models of the human head introduce the need for mechanical characterization of even the smallest components. The description of the mechanical behaviour can be done with constitutive models that are fitted onto experimental stress-strain curves. To obtain these curves, tests must be performed on samples of the material. However, current test benches do not allow for testing small soft tissue samples such as bridging veins that have an average diameter of only 0,5 - 5,3mm. This introduces the need for custom test benches of which one is developed in this master thesis: a biaxial setup that combines simple shear with uniaxial tensile. The simple shear loading is performed with an existing tensile bench, on which the setup is mounted, and is based on the two rail shear setup by Cui (2016). To guide the displacement, a pair of titanium flexure bearings is used. The results with this system are acceptable, but the accuracy is too low due to the low repeatability of the flexure bearings resistance. Therefore, this aspect of the design must be revised in a new version of the setup. The tensile loading is created by applying a displacement with an external actuator, while measuring the forces with a load cell. The results are promising, although some rescaling of the load cell is required. A hybrid clamping system is used to get a good grip on the small samples. The combination between glueing and applying a clamping force results in the proper deformation when the displacements are applied. Considering this is the first prototype, the results look promising. Valuable in- sights are obtained from preliminary tests and suggestions are given to improve the design and the test protocol. ER -