Mechanical properties of implantable biomaterials.

This chapter was intended to review many of the terms used to describe the behavior of biomaterials including linear elastic, plastic, and viscoelastic behavior. Common testing methods for evaluating the behavior of biomaterials were also reviewed. Uniaxial loading, perhaps the most common testing procedure, can characterize both time-independent (i.e., linear elastic and plastic) and time-dependent (viscoelastic) materials with a controlled...