Biaxial Tensile Tester

A biaxial tensile tester is a device that is designed to pull on a sample or material in two directions while simultaneously reading and recording the forces being applied. These devices and its corresponding interface is able to record and display the mechanical properties of the specific samples. These properties include the stress and strain of the material as well as young's modulus of elasticity. The end goal for our device is to have a biaxial tensile tester to test the forces being applied to a sample of human tissue or a bio-similar material. In our case, we are building this for the faculty in the biomedical engineering department to use for research and lecture purposes. For Imagine RIT, we want to use our machine to show individuals the mechanical properties of "human tissue." The ‘human tissue’ material will be a medical gel manufactured by the company Humimic Medical. This gelatin based substance is traditionally used in the medical field to simulate human tissue. Medical professionals can use it in lieu of actual human tissue for experimentation purposes. As a demonstration we will mold different fun shapes, such as tigers, to make a sample that can be used in the machine. Then we can use the device for its intended purpose of showing how it can output the mechanical properties of said sample. We will test until failure to show our younger audience how hard you would need to pull or how long you will need to pull the sample until it breaks. After testing we will provide take home "samples" made of a non-edible gelatin material in the shape of Tigers or another fun shape. For our more mature audiences, we will be displaying the computer interface we have to show how our MatLab code interacts with the Arduino within the device itself and how it tells it to do what we ask. We can then show how the samples that we made are mounted into the device, how the mechanical properties of the material are recorded and calculated, and finally how the data can be useful in the field of medical research.