Damage tolerance of lamellar bone

Razi, Hajar; Predan, Jožef; Fischer, Franz Dieter; Kolednik, Otmar; Fratzl, Peter

Affiliations

¹Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Department of Biomaterials, Research Campus Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany

²Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia

³Institute of Mechanics, Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Franz-Josef Strasse 18, A-8700 Leoben, Austria

⁴Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Jahnstrasse 12, A-8700 Leoben, Austria

Abstract and keywords

Lamellar bone is known to be the most typical structure of cortical bone in large mammals including humans. This type of tissue provides a good combination of strength and fracture toughness. As has been shown by John D Currey and other researchers, large deformations are associated with the appearance of microdamage that optically whitens the tissue, a process that has been identified as a contribution to bone toughness. Using finite-element modelling, we study crack propagation in a material with periodic variation of mechanical parameters, such as elastic modulus and strength, chosen to represent lamellar bone. We show that a multitude of microcracks appears in the region ahead of the initial crack tip, thus dissipating energy even without a progression of the initial crack tip. Strength and toughness are shown to be both larger for the (notched) lamellar material than for a homogeneous material with the same average properties and the same initial notch. The length of the microcracks typically corresponds to the width of a lamella, that is, to several microns. This simultaneous improvement of strength and toughness may explain the ubiquity of lamellar plywood structures not just in bone but also in plants and in chitin-based cuticles of insects and arthropods.

Keywords: Bone strength; Bone toughness; Bone fracture

Links

DOI: 10.1016/j.bone.2019.115102

PubMed: 31669254

WoS: 000503321100045

History

Received: 2019-07-24

Revised: 2019-10-03

Accepted: 2019-10-04

Online: 2019-10-24

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Year	Entry
2022	Hedjazi G, Guterman-Ram G, Blouin S, Schemenz V, Wagermaier W, Fratzl P, Hartmann MA, Zwerina J, Fratzl-Zelman N, Marini JC. Alterations of bone material properties in growing Ifitm5/BRIL p.s42 knock-in mice, a new model for atypical type vi osteogenesis imperfecta. Bone. September 2022;162:116451.
2022	Costantini A, Mäkitie RE, Hartmann MA, Fratzl-Zelman N, Zillikens MC, Kornak U, Søe K, Mäkitie O. Early-onset osteoporosis: rare monogenic forms elucidate the complexity of disease pathogenesis beyond type I collagen. J Bone Miner Res. September 2022;37(9):1623-1641.
2023	Tits A. Attaching Soft to Hard: A Multimodal Correlative Investigation of the Tendon-Bone Interface [PhD thesis]. Liège, Belgique: Université de Liège; 2023.
2021	Atthapreyangkul A. Multi-Scale Finite Element Modelling of Human Cortical Bone: An Analysis of the Mechanical Properties and Microdamage Onset of Cortical Bone [PhD thesis]. University of New South Wales; April 2021.