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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Dec 2.
Published in final edited form as: Acta Biomater. 2011 Feb 15;7(6):2467–2476. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2011.02.018

Figure 2.

Figure 2

(A) Photograph with annotations depicting the method of operation of the bending apparatus. The linear motion of the bending tester stage pulls the hydrogel strip (secured against the loading posts (c)) against the flexure bar (b). Displacement of the flexure bar is determined relative to the immobile reference bar (a). Graphite particles (d) are visible atop the hydrogel strip. The arrow indicates the direction of motion. (B) Illustration demonstrating the concept behind optical strain measurement in the three-point bending test. This method was originally described by Gloeckner et al. [29].