XXI ICTAM, 15-21 August 2004, Warsaw, Poland ANALYSIS OF TRABECULAR BONE AS A HIERARCHICAL MATERIAL

We study trabecular bone as a hierarchical material with a highly complex and random structure. First, we characterize trabecular bone’s structure at several structural levels: nanoscale (apatite crystals and collagen fibril level), sub-microscale (single lamella level), microscale (single trabecular pocket or single trabecula level), and mesoscale (porous trabecular network level) using atomic, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray microtomography. Then, we model trabecular bone at each structural level as a linear elastic solid employing either classical elasticity or higher order elastic theory (Cosserat theory). Modeling techniques include analytical micromechanics theories and numerical simulations involving finite element, spring network, and beam network approaches. We compare our theoretical results at different scales with our experimental measurements.