Designed by: Georgina Allison, Kim Demos, Adam Rozumalski & Kay Switlik
Advised by: Dr. Orhan Soykan
An innovative design for a horizontal bath chamber to test specimens under in vivo conditions subject to a horizontal load was developed for the Tytron 250 material testing system from MTS Inc. This particular system was designed to test durability and fatigue of materials under various conditions.
Design specifications and a budget of $2000 dollars was received from MTS to develop a reliable testing chamber. The entire system required corrosion resistant materials due to the saline solution used to simulate in vivo conditions. A rigid acrylic tank was developed to accessorize the Tytron 250 to allow the specimen to be easily loaded, viewed, tested and removed. One specification was to maintain laminar flow, which lead to the use of a peristaltic pump. To aid in the laminar flow process a diffuser was designed and placed at the inlet side of the chamber. The tank temperature was to be maintained at body temperature, 37C, allowing a differential across the tank of +/- 1C. This temperature was monitored by a PFA Teflon coated thermocouple linked to a digital process controller. The process controller manipulated cartridge heaters in a separate heating chamber to maintain the specified temperature. After salinity tests were performed, any evaporation from the chamber was determined to be minimal. The final prototype developed met MTS requirements including laminar flow, body temperature, and salinity.
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Last modified 13 November 2000
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