A novel technique for characterizing elastic properties of thin biological membrane

We present a new technique to characterize the elastic properties of a thin biological membrane. An effective instrument that embodies video enhanced microscope was developed primarily to provide the capability of simultaneously measuring both the applied force and the resultant displacement of the biological membrane under a central point force. A theoretical linear elastic solution was applied to quantitatively interpret the measured central deflection of the membrane under a central point load. The Young's modulus of raw and boiled Leghorn egg inner tissue can be easily determined once the applied point load and the central deflection, together with the essential dimensions are known. The viscoelasticity property of natural tissue was manifest in the experiment. The experimental results have verified that the novel technique is applicable to determine the Young's modulus and other viscoelatic properties of thin biological tissue. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.