Читать книгу Materials for Biomedical Engineering - Mohamed N. Rahaman - Страница 120

Materials show a variety of mechanical response that is strongly dependent on their interatomic bonding and structure. Following perfectly elastic deformation, ceramics (including glasses and glass‐ceramics) typically fracture catastrophically in a brittle manner whereas metals (and their alloys) deform plastically prior to eventual failure. Unlike metals and ceramics, the mechanical response of polymers at a given temperature is strongly dependent on the time over which the stress is applied (or the rate at which the stress is increased). This time‐dependent mechanical response of polymers is called viscoelasticity. Although large changes in temperature are not relevant to the application of biomaterials, it should be noted that unlike metals and ceramics, the mechanical response of polymers is also highly sensitive to the temperature of testing.