Force Measurements for Needle Insertions into SEBS Soft Tissue Mimicking Simulants with and without Waterjet Running Through the Needle

Three distinct experiments are conducted to compare the insertion forces of traditional needles and waterjet needles. These include: (a) insertion of a needle without the waterjet to give a baseline for a traditional needle’s insertion forces, (b) reinserting a needle without waterjet in the existing channel from (a) to determine the frictional component of (a), and (c) a new insertion with the waterjet enabled (in a fresh channel) to compare the insertion forces against both the traditional needle insertion and the friction-only component of a traditional insertion. The key finding is that Waterjet Needles Result in a Reduction in Insertion Force of Over 50 %. In the data the first column is displacement and the second column is force. Main.m is a matlab file to help with plotting the data.