Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K Brear.
Static toughness and impact strength of human cortical bone decline with age. This decline is strongly associated with an increase in the ash content of the bones but other factors, associated with age, are probably also responsible for the degradation of the bones' mechanical properties.
The risk of infection of investigators working on the biomechanics of human bone from a variety of modern pathogens including the human immunodeficiency virus or the hepatitis B virus has increased recently. New safety procedures are needed to reduce that risk. The procedure we follow in our laboratory employs brief (< 3 h) fixation in formaldehyde, and we report here the effects it has on some mechanical properties of bovine bone. Results in quasistatic loading tests were almost unaffected by our fixation protocol, but a significant decrease in impact strength was found. These results indicate that there may be some interaction between fixation and strain rate dependent effects and, therefore, some caution is needed when using common biomechanical measurement methods on fixed bone material.
The successful modelling of the mechanical properties of mineralized tissues depends critically on the knowledge of the off-axis behaviour of individual unidirectional lamellae. Information on this is lacking. In this work we attempt to rectify the situation. Young's modulus, measured in bending and tension, and the tensile strength and ultimate strain to failure of the dentine of the narwhal Monodon monoceros, were determined on specimens that had almost unidirectional fibres, whose direction differed considerably from specimen to specimen. Modulus and strength decreased steadily with the degree of off-angle loading, falling to about 45% of maximum for modulus, and 35% of maximum for strength. Ultimate strain showed a less uniform behaviour, and remained remarkably high at large angles. Differences in mechanical behaviour were not related to the very small differences in mineral content measured between specimens. These findings have strong implications for modelling the anisotropic behaviour of bone, because dentine is very much like bone in most important respects. Predictions using classical composite theory are reasonably satisfactory, as long as the mineral crystals are assumed to be platelets, not rods.
Values for Young's modulus of elasticity, ultimate and yield stresses, ultimate and yield strains, work under the stress-strain curve and work of fracture were obtained from tensile and bending tests on specimens of narwhal tusk dentine and cement, femoral bone from young and mature cattle, and reindeer antler. Compared with the cattle bone the narwhal tissues had low Young's moduli, low yield stresses, rather low ultimate stresses and high ultimate strains. In all these properties they were similar to reindeer antler. The calcium content and hardness of the narwhal tissues were compared with those of human and cattle dental tissues. The narwhal dentine was considerably softer and less mineralized than human and cattle dentine. Human cementum was softer and less mineralized than cattle cementum, and was like narwhal cementum. In general, the mechanical properties of the narwhal tusk tissues were as would be expected from their mineral content, except that the stiffness of the cementum was low. It is likely that narwhal dentine is not very similar to human and cattle dentine in its mechanical properties.
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