Simple fracture testing of hydrogels for cartilage or bone tissue engineering

To replace damaged cartilage or bone tissues, hydrogels are required to provide appropriate stiffness or deformation properties as well as resistance to fracture. However, failure properties, such as the resistance to fracture, must be evaluated by fracture toughness techniques. The application of the micro-destructive indentation test for fracture toughness determination in these tissues can become widespread because of the simplicity of the test. The aim of this paper is to propose a well-tested and more realistic approach for estimating fracture toughness in cartilage and bone