A triaxial-measurement sheer-test device for soft biological tissues

A novel shear-test device for soft biological tissue, capable of applying s imple shear deformations simultaneously in two orthogonal directions while measuring the resulting forces generated in three axes, is described. We va lidated the device using a synthetic gel, the properties of which were asce rtained from independent tensile and rotational shear tests. Material param eters for the gel were fitted using neo-Hookean analytical solutions to the independent test data, and these matched the results from the device. Prel iminary results obtained with rat septal myocardium are also presented to d emonstrate the feasibility of the apparatus in determining the shear charac teristics of living tissue. [S0148-0731(00)00205-3].