Mechanical behaviour of cancellous bone: compression and three-point bending test

Abstract

The mechanical properties of cancellous bone are fundamental in providing structural support and flexibility during physical activities. Characterization of cancellous bone properties and its mechanical behaviour were found crucial as information of the elastic and failure properties of the tissue may potentially be used to study the effects of drug treatments, aging and disease at the tissue level. This study aims to present the difference of mechanical properties of cancellous bone between compressive and three-point bending loads. Cancellous bone specimens from the femoral and tibial condyles of bovines were mechanically tested using three-point bending test and compression test and correlated with morphological parameters such as bone volume fraction and porosity. From the results, significant difference of mechanical properties was found between cancellous bone specimens tested with compressive and three-point bending load. From compressive load, the maximum stress reached 4.2 MPa, whereas in three-point bending, maximum flexural stress reached 17.0 MPa. Cancellous bone strength was found to be much higher when tested with three-point bending load, although correlations with morphological parameters such as bone volume fraction (BV/TV) and porosity were found lower compared to that in compressive load. In conclusion, there are no correlation between compression and three-point bending with morphology indices (BV/TV and porosity).