A Review on Synthetic Skin: Materials Investigation, Experimentation and Simulation

Abstract

The skin, which acts as a protector of the body from potentially harmful external environment is a multi-layered tissue that exhibits complex mechanical behaviour. The aim of this paper is to review available studies of human skin using experimental and numerical methods in determining the mechanical properties of skin. Mechanical properties of skin are vital to the certain industries such as surgical, cosmetics, forensic science and etc., where skin study currently leads to the development of an ultimate skin-like substitute that contains anatomy and physiology characteristics. A number of research papers and journals related to skin were revised and currently findings show that available information in regard to skin biomechanical properties is limited and the actual skin behavior is not comprehensively examined. Nevertheless, further in-depth research is required to develop appropriate techniques in estimating the skin properties which are valuable to the development of biomechanics study of skin.

A MEMS nanoindenter with an integrated AFM cantilever gripper for nanomechanical characterization of compliant materials

“…Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. nano-electronics [1,2], engineered artificial skin [3,4], microand nano-lithography [5,6] and soft sensors and actuators [7,8]. Quantitative nanomechanical characterization of soft materials [9][10][11][12][13] frequently plays an essential role in the design, development and further application of these materials.…”

Engineered Skin Tissue Equivalents for Product Evaluation and Therapeutic Applications

“…Currently, there is a lack of consensus on this issue since there have been studies with both positive and negative results . Moreover, it has been reported that many commercially available skin substitutes, listed later in this review, do not incorporate mechanical and textural similarity as they require mimicking of the biological and histological skin properties . Nonetheless, a study done by Nachman et al reported that the artificial skin model did illustrate the friction and deformation behavior of native skin.…”