Comparison of compact bone failure under two different loadings rates: experimental and modelling approaches

Understanding the mechanical behaviour of bones up to failure is necesary for diagnosis and prevention of accident and trauma. As far as we know, no authors have yet studied the tensile behaviour of compact bone including failure under dynamic loadings (1m/s). The originality of this study comes from not only the analysis of compact bone failure under dynamic loadings, the results of which are compared to those obtained under quasi static loadings but also the development of a statistical model. We developed a protocol using three different devices. Firstly, an X-ray scanner to analyse bone density, secondly, a common tensile device to perform quasi static experiments and thirdly, a special device based upon a hydraulic cylinder to perform dynamic tests. For all the tests, we used the same sample shape which took into account the brittleness of the compact bone. We first performed relaxation and hysteresis tests followed by tensile tests up to failure. Viscous and plastic effects were not relevant to the compact bone behaviour so its behaviour was considered elastic and brittle. The bovine compact bone was three to four times more brittle under a dynamic load than under a quasi static one. Numerically, a statistical model, based upon the Weibull theory is used to predict the failure stress in compact bone

Two-dimensional finite element simulation of fracture and fatigue behaviours of alumina microstructures for hip prosthesis

This paper describes a two-dimensional (2D) finite element simulation for fracture and fatigue behaviours of pure alumina microstructures such as those found at hip prostheses. Finite element models are developed using actual Al2O3 microstructures and a bilinear cohesive zone law. Simulation conditions are similar to those found at a slip zone in a dry contact between a femoral head and an acetabular cup of hip prosthesis. Contact stresses are imposed to generate cracks in the models. Magnitudes of imposed stresses are higher than those found at the microscopic scale. Effects of microstructures and contact stresses are investigated in terms of crack formation. In addition, fatigue behaviour of the microstructure is determined by performing simulations under cyclic loading conditions. It is shown that crack density observed in a microstructure increases with increasing magnitude of applied contact stress. Moreover, crack density increases linearly with respect to the number of fatigue cycles within a given contact stress range. Meanwhile, as applied contact stress increases, number of cycles to failure decreases gradually. Finally, this proposed finite element simulation offers an effective method for identifying fracture and fatigue behaviours of a microstructure provided that microstructure images are available