Strain-rate and temperature dependent material properties of Agar and Gellan Gum used in biomedical applications

In addition to a dependence of Young׳s modulus on temperature, a remarkable influence of strain-rate has been observed, especially in the sample containing solid particles; in same ranges of temperature and strain-rate, also relaxation time variations have been monitored in order to identify a possible dependence of damping properties on temperature and strain-rate. The result is the impossibility to determine univocally mechanical properties of studied biomaterials without a proper definition of boundary conditions at which they have been obtained.