Compressive Characteristics of Porcine Whole Liver

Abstract

The liver is one of the injury regions impacted by the steering wheel during a traffic accident. Therefore, in the field of impact biomechanics, the study of the liver has attracted considerable interest. We consider the case of abdominal compression by a steering wheel and perform quasi-static compression tests using a full-scale porcine liver that is not shaped into a cylinder or a cube in order to determine the basic mechanical properties of an unaltered liver. A human liver and a porcine liver have different structures; the former is divided into two regions (right and left lobe), while the latter is divided into four regions (right medial, right lateral, left medial, and left lateral lobe). Therefore, we compared the compressive properties of the four regions of the porcine liver using a cylindrical indenter to simulate the effect of the steering wheel of a passenger car. No significant differences were observed among the four porcine liver regions. Next, we compared the differences in mechanical properties, behaviors, and injury patterns of the porcine liver by using four compressive indenter profiles. The indenters were made from an acrylic resin. Although the injury patterns were different, yield loads were observed under an approximately constant compressive ratio regardless of the compressive indenter profile.

Keywords

• liver
• steering wheel
• compressive characteristics
• indenter profile
• compressive ratio