A combined experimental and numerical method to estimate the elastic modulus of single trabeculae. (January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wu, Dan; Joffre, Thomas; Mägi, Caroline Öhman; Ferguson, Stephen J.; Persson, Cecilia; Isaksson, Per
• Is Part Of: Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials. Volume 125(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-01
• Subjects: Elastic modulus -- Single trabeculae -- Compression testing -- Synchrotron radiation based X-ray tomography -- Digital volume correlation; Biomedical materials -- Periodicals; Biomedical materials -- Mechanical properties -- Periodicals; Biomedical materials; Biomedical materials -- Mechanical properties; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2021.104879
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-6161

Abstract

Abstract: The elastic modulus at the single trabecular level is an important parameter for the understanding of the mechanical behavior of trabecular bone. Current methods are commonly limited by the irregular trabecular shape and the accuracy of displacement measurement. The aim of this study was to propose a method to estimate the trabecular modulus overcoming some of these limitations. For high-precision displacement measurements, in-situ compression within a synchrotron radiation based X-ray tomograph was used. Trabecular displacements were subsequently estimated by a global digital volume correlation algorithm, followed by high-resolution finite element analyses to account for the irregular geometry. The trabecular elastic moduli were then estimated by comparing the loads from the finite element analyses with those of the experiments. With this strategy, the average elastic modulus was estimated to 3.83 ± 0.54 GPa for three human trabeculae samples. Though limited by the sample size, the demonstrated method shows a potential to estimate the mechanical properties at the single trabecular level.