Current theoretical and experimental evidence suggests that the sensory bone cells are activated by the induced drag from fluid flowing through the lacunar-canalicular porosity, PLC. One of the most important parameters of the interstitial fluid flow is the PLC permeability. However, the reported experimental measurements of this permeability are several orders of magnitude below the values predicted by analytical studies. The discrepancy between theoretical and experimental values of PLC permeability could be due to the assumptions considered in the formulation of analytical models, the estimation of unknown parameters, the difficulty to perform experiments on the PLC without the influence of the vascular porosity, PV, as well as the lack of freshness, type and origin of samples.

In this thesis, innovative analytical and experimental approaches were proposed to accurately estimate the PLC permeability that was determined in a single osteon, a domain in which the PLC can be separated from the PV. The osteon was idealized as a poroelastic annular disk, and the loss tangent was investigated at different loading frequencies. A sensitivity study of the analytical model has showed that the porosity is the most influential parameter, and that the loss tangent was frequency dependent.

The PLC permeability was determined based on experimental measurements of loss tangent on human osteons that were curve fitted to the analytical model at different frequencies. The novelty in determining the PLC permeability in this research stems from several aspects that have been neglected in previous studies. First, the use of fresh human samples that include the PLC and exclude the PV. Second, measurement of the model parameters independently for each osteon. Third, the frequency dependence of the PLC permeability was measured.

The study showed that the loss-tangent of the osteon changes a few hours after isolation of the sample and that the lack of freshness could be an important factor on the large variability in PLC permeability in literature. It was also discovered that there exist a strong correlation between porosity and PLC permeability. The average PLC permeability in 60 human osteons was found to be (6.15±0.83)10^-22 m², in agreement with previously reported values.