CHARACTERISATION OF A SURROGATE LUNG MATERIAL MADE OF POLYURETHANE FOAM AND FLUID-FILLED GELATINE MICROCAPSULES
In this study, a surrogate lung material, developed to mimic the lungs behaviour in low and high rate impact tests in order to better understand the damage mechanism in the lungs resulting from car crashes, collisions and explosion [1], is tested and characterised. This aims to eliminate the practice of live animal testing. The surrogate lung consists of polyurethane foam mixed with gelatine microcapsules filled with Barium Sulphate solution. Thus, both the foam and microcapsules must be individually characterised in addition to the surrogate lung itself when treated as a continuum material. For this, a number of compression tests were carried out on each material to ascertain their mechanical properties. On the other hand, the damage to the surrogate lung specimens as represented by burst microcapsules was analysed by carrying out CT scans before and after testing. The results show that the modulus of elasticity increases with the test speed. CT scan results clearly demonstrated the magnitude and distribution of damage within the specimen.