Fig. 1

Mechanical tests scheme. a Cutting of the samples for tensile tests from membranes with resulting dimensions shown in the figure. b Insertion of the samples in the bioreactor and equilibration to 37 °C prior to testing. Displacement imposed using an actuator and encoder assembly and force measured using a load cell. c Measurement of the viscoelasticity performed by cyclic sinusoidal testing and measurement of the hysteresis, the energy stored in the material, by computing the area between the loading and unloading curve using Matlab. d Experimental data obtained from linear tests and engineering stress and strain was computed. Plotting of the resulting stress-strain data was performed and the Young’s modulus obtained