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BIOMECHANICS OF TRABECULAR BONE

Trabecular bone, the porous type of bone found in the spine and at all articulating joints, can be classified as a porous cellular solid, consisting of an irregular three-dimensional array of boney rods and plates, called trabeculae, which themselves are composed of a composite material. Bone marrow fills the spaces of the pores. In addition, because all free bone surfaces are covered with bone cells, bone is a living tissue that is self-healing and has the ability to adjust its morphology in response to changes in its mechanical environment, the so-called but poorly understood phenomenon of bone remodeling. As such, the mechanical complexity of this two-phase biological tissue surpasses any engineering material, making it a fascinating subject of study regardless of clinical applications.

Even so, there are important clinical implications related to the biomechanical behavior of trabecular bone, including osteoporosis, prosthesis loosening, bone remodeling, development of artificial bone substitutes, and design of drugs to combat bone disease, aging, and space flight. By addressing the relationship between the mechanical environment of trabecular bone and its biological activity, our long-term goal is to understand the biomechanics of bone in the truest sense of this term.

Our work to date on the biomechanics of trabecular bone, which spans the full range of behavior of this tissue, can be categorized into six areas which are described in more detail below:

  1. Accurate mechanical testing and multiaxial failure behavior

    2. A video demsonstraion of trabecular bone testing.

    Engineering drawing of the endcaps used for trabecular bone testing

    Endcap drawing

    (click for enlarged version)

  2. Failure mechanisms and mechanical properties of individual trabeculae
  3. Mechanical behavior of damaged trabecular bone
  4. Three-dimensional imaging and morphologic analysis
  5. High-resolution finite element stress analysis using massively parallel computational techniques
  6. Bone biology and mechanics

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