Flaw sensitivity and tensile fatigue of a high-strength hydrogel

•High strength hydrogel and porcine costal cartilage were studied via flaw analysis.•Cartilage was not as sensitive to flaw type as the hydrogel for monotonic testing.•Hydrogel was not as sensitive to increasing monotonic testing rate as cartilage.•Hydrogel was more sensitive to sharp cracks in tensile fatigue.•Cartilage was more sensitive to cylindrical holes in tensile fatigue.