EXTENDED TIMOSHENKO BEAM FORMULA FOR CELLULAR CON- TRACTION FORCE CALCULATION

The inherent viscoelastic properties and low aspect ratio of micro-fabricated PDMS micropillars compromise the accuracy of these devices to measure the cellular contraction forces. In our previous work, these issues have been studied by finite element analysis. However, a more in-depth analytical formula is still lacking. In this paper, an extended viscoelastic Timoshenko beam formula was developed and validated by micro-beam bending tests. In addition a case study of the contraction force of cardiac myocytes was performed, and the formula showed excellent accuracy comparing to the traditional elastic Euler beam formula.