Research stay at the Institute of Biomechanics, TU Graz
In November, David Böhringer and Silvia Budday visited the Institute of Biomechanics led by Prof. Gerhard A. Holzapfel at Graz University of Technology. The aim was to characterize the complex mechanical response of collagen-based hydrogels using the triaxial testing device in Graz.
We were able to establish an experimental setup to reliably test the same hydrogel sample under multiple loading modes. These versatile experiments will allow us to immediately compare the response of the hydrogels with the behavior of several human tissues such as arteries, myocardium, fat, and brain tissue, which have been previously tested by the group in Graz. We are looking forward to analyze the exciting results.
A huge thanks to Prof. Holzapfel and his group for being such great hosts! This was a promising start for a fruitful collaboration within the EFI project.