An experimental investigation of the stability of a fibre embedded in a soft gel

• Main Author: Ganesan, Priyadharshini
• Other Authors: Wu Mao See
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177698
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This Final Year Project aims to experimentally investigate how the stability of fibres embedded in a soft gel is affected by the stiffness of the soft gel. The student conducted a series of experiments to test the stability by fabricating soft gels of various stiffness and fibres using easily obtainable household items and testing the buckling of the fibre when subjected to axial compressive loads. From the experimental results, the critical buckling load as well as the buckling shapes for the fibres embedded in different concentrations of soft gel was obtained and analysed. Conclusions drawn using the findings in this project will help in furthering the understanding of fibre-gel composites and ways in which strength of the composite can be maximised while maintaining stability. Fibre-gel composites are used heavily in biomedical and manufacturing industries. More specifically, some applications for which this study would help includes deriving the Extracellular Matrix (ECM) that acts as a scaffold for tissue engineering as well as using these results to create a lighter but stronger fibre embedded polymer material.