Material properties of bovine intervertebral discs across strain rates. (January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Newell, Nicolas; Grigoriadis, Grigorios; Christou, Alexandros; Carpanen, Diagarajen; Masouros, Spyros D.
• Is Part Of: Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials. Volume 65(2017)
• Page Start: 824
• Page End: 830
• Publication Date: 2017-01
• Subjects: Intervertebral disc -- spine -- Finite element modelling -- inverse methods -- Collagen fibre -- material properties; Biomedical materials -- Periodicals; Biomedical materials -- Mechanical properties -- Periodicals; Biomedical materials; Biomedical materials -- Mechanical properties; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2016.10.012
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-6161

Abstract

Abstract: The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a complex structure responsible for distributing compressive loading to adjacent vertebrae and allowing the vertebral column to bend and twist. To study the mechanical behaviour of individual components of the IVD, it is common for specimens to be dissected away from their surrounding tissues for mechanical testing. However, disrupting the continuity of the IVD to obtain material properties of each component separately may result in erroneous values. In this study, an inverse finite element (FE) modelling optimisation algorithm has been used to obtain material properties of the IVD across strain rates, therefore bypassing the need to harvest individual samples of each component. Uniaxial compression was applied to ten fresh-frozen bovine intervertebral discs at strain rates of 10 -3 –1/s. The experimental data were fed into the inverse FE optimisation algorithm and each experiment was simulated using the subject specific FE model of the respective specimen. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the IVD's response was most dependent upon the Young's modulus (YM) of the fibre bundles and therefore this was chosen to be the parameter to optimise. Based on the obtained YM values for each test corresponding to a different strain rate ( ε ̇ ), the following relationship was derived: YM = 35.5 ln ε ̇ + 527.5 . These properties can be used in finite element models of the IVD that aim to simulate spinal biomechanics across loading rates.