Dynamic behavior and microstructural properties of cancellous bone

The aim of the presented study is to identify some properties of the dynamic behavior of the cancellous bone and to identify the link between this mechanical behavior and the microstructural properties. 7 cylinders of bovine cancellous bone (diameter 41 mm, thickness 14 mm) were tested in quasi static loading (0.001 s-1), 8 in dynamic loading (1000 s-1) and 10 in dynamic loading (1500 s-1) with a confinement system. All the specimens were submitted to imaging before the tests (pQCT) in order to indentify two microstructural properties: Bone Volume / Total Volume ? BV/TV ? and Trabeculae Thickness ? Tb.Th. The behavior of bovine cancellous bone under compression exhibits a foam-type behavior over the whole range of strain rates explored in this study. The results show that for the quasi-static tests only the stresses are correlated with BV/TV. For the unconfined dynamic tests, the yield stress is correlated to BV/TV and the plateau stress to BV/TV and Tb.Th. For the confined tests, only the plateau stress is correlated to BV/TV and Tb.Th. The effect of strain rate is an increase of the yield stress and the plateau stress. The confinement has an effect on the measured values of compression stresses that confirms the importance of marrow flow in the overall behavior.