An Experimental Measurement Method to Characterize and Apply Platinum Silicon Material for a Biomechanical Replica of the Thoracic Aorta

Currently, silicone is a common material used in medical research and biomedical applications. This research aims to characterize extra-soft platinum silicone (shore A 00 50) and compare its mechanical behavior with that of the human thoracic aorta. By developing molds to get samples, for tensile testing according to ISO 37 and ASTM D412, and for compression testing according to ISO 7743 and ASTM D575, using a universal testing machine for tensile and compression tests, and applying digital image correlation (DIC) algorithms, the mechanical properties were characterized in a total of 10 tensile samples and 6 compression samples. The results show an ultimate tensile strength up to 1.77 ± 0.12 MPa in the ASTM samples and 2.10 ± 0.14 MPa in the ISO samples; alongside an incremental elastic module of 80.08 ± 7.94 kPa and 117.98 ± 11.39 kPa; finally, an elongation at break of 1114.49 ± 76.77% and 936.08 ± 63.56%, corresponding to the values of a healthy thoracic aorta. The replica of the thoracic aorta in this material was developed by a brush method, with a thickness of 1.82 mm, a length from the aortic arch to the descending aorta of 200.49 mm, and diameters of 20.45 and 16.05 mm for the ascending and descending aorta, respectively.