STUDY OF NORMAL RANGE OF STRAIN, STRAIN RATE, AND STIFFNESS OF TENDON

This paper describes the result of an investigation of strains and strain rates which normally occur in the tendons of the equine foreleg and presents stress-strain curves and moduli for the tendons at these rates. To carry out tendon tests, legs were mounted in the test machine. The superficial flexor tendon was exposed and fitted with an extensometer and a buckle-type force transducer. Stress-strain curves were obtained for 13 tendons. It is shown that strains to 12% and strain rates to 200%/sec occur normally in the superficial flexor tendon. Stress strain curves and tangent modulus are presented for strains from 0 to 10% at rates from 5 to 100%/sec. Tendon modulus is found to be essentially rate independent in this range.