Abdominal organ injuries account for approximately 3-5% of all injuries in automobile accidents. Because of incidence of injury, understanding the mechanical properties of these organs is vital to preventing and caring for injuries. Abdominal organs degrade quickly after death and therefore the need to develop appropriate procurement and testing methodologies is imperative. The purpose of this paper was to collect data from uniaxial tension tests to determine the effects of testing temperature on the mechanical properties of bovine liver parenchyma. Slices were taken from the parenchyma of two fresh, never frozen bovine livers and then stamped into a tension coupon. The specimens for each liver were then divided into two groups. One group was tested in an environment held at 98° F with the other tested in an environment held at 75° F. A total of 11 failure tests were run at 75° F, the temperature of the lab environment, and a total of 13 failure tests were run at 98° F, which corresponds to internal temperature of the human body. There was no statistical difference in the failure stress and strain for either of the two livers between the two temperatures. This shows that the calculated mechanical properties are not dependent on testing temperature in this range.
Keywords:
abdominal; organs; liver; injury; automobile; driving; procurement; temperature