Uncertainty Analysis of the Mechanical Response of Porcine Brain at High Strain Rate Compression

The Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) apparatus presents a unique capability in studying the dynamic response of a material, but it is accompanied with a moderately high noise level, giving a rather large standard deviation for the stress-strain behavior of the soft biological material being tested [1]. Compounding the errors in a SHPB setup is the uncertainty arising from sample-to-sample variability in a soft biological material. Uncertainties arise in a measured variable through a vast number of sources such as an imperfect instrument calibration process, standards used for calibration, and the influence of the measured variable due to inconsistencies in ambient temperature, pressure, humidity and vibrations.