Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Maximization Of Hydraulic Flow Through Small Flexible Polymer Tubes By The Optimization Of Tubing Stiffness And Wall Thickness, Christopher L. Chipman

Theses and Dissertations

As illness becomes increasingly more common in the United States and across the globe, the need for better and faster medical treatment is greater than ever. The purpose of this work is to evaluate advanced polymers and polymer composites that will provide for increased fluid flow while maintaining outer dimensional, stiffness, and burst resistance characteristics when compared to a currently used material. A polymer configuration consisting of a proprietary formulation that has a durometer approximately 10% higher than the current material with an outer wall thickness of approximately .020" passed a series of tests involving tensile strength, stiffness, flexural fatigue …