Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Initiation Fracture Toughness of Human Cortical Bone as a Function of Loading Rate

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Dynamic Behavior of Materials, Volume 1

Abstract

During injury causing events such as impact, blunt trauma, penetration or blast, the human body is subjected to high rate loading. These events will deform and damage human tissue, frequently causing tearing in soft tissues and cracking/fracture in hard tissue (bone) due to the inherent brittleness of bone. For the development of accurate fracture models for computer simulation of bone fracture and also to understand the failure mechanisms of hard tissues during blast and impact events, it is necessary to investigate the failure behavior (fracture) of hard tissues at different loading rates, including high loading rates. In this study, the Mode I fracture behavior of cortical bone from the human femur, perpendicular to the long axis, is investigated as a function of loading rate, including dynamic loading rates which are accomplished with a modified Kolsky bar. The bone fracture specimens were extracted from three different human donors, ages 36, 50, and 43. For all three donors, the fracture toughness increases as loading rate increases from quasi-static to intermediate. As loading rate increases from intermediate to dynamic rates, the initiation fracture toughness decreased on average, while remaining higher than at quasi-static rate. The observed variations in initiation fracture toughness with donor age for each loading rate did not show any specific trends. The initiation fracture toughness of cortical bone is dependent on the path of the crack relative to the internal bone structure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. ASTM C1421-10 (2010) Standard test methods for determination of fracture toughness of advanced ceramics at ambient temperatures. Annual book of ASTM standards, ASTM, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  2. Böhme W, Kalthoff J (1982) The behavior of notched bend specimens in impact testing. Int J Fracture 20:R139–R143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Rittel D, Mairge H, Bui H (1992) A new method for dynamic fracture toughness testing. Scripta Metall Mater 26(10):1593–1598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bacon C, Färm J, Lataillade J (1994) Dynamic fracture toughness determined from load-point displacement. Exp Mech 34(3):217–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sharpe W, Böhme W (1994) Dynamic fracture toughness measurements on small Charpy specimens – A preliminary study. J Test Eval 22(1):14–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Anderson C, Popelar C, Nagy A, Walker D (2000) A novel method for determining dynamic fracture toughness. In: American Institute of Physics (ed) Shock compression of condensed matter. American Institute of Physics, Woodbury, pp 505–508

    Google Scholar 

  7. Weisbrod G, Rittel D (2000) A method for dynamic fracture toughness determination using short beams. Int J Fracture 104(1):89–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Martins C, Prakash V (2002) Dynamic fracture characteristics of LMDPE utilizing a modified split Hopkinson bar. In: Proceedings of 2002 society of experimental mechanics annual conference. Milwaukee

    Google Scholar 

  9. Deobald L, Kobayashi A (1992) A bar impact tester for dynamic fracture testing of ceramic and ceramic composites. Exp Mech 32(2):109–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Jiang F, Vecchio KS (2007) Experimental investigation of dynamic effects in a two-bar/three-point bend fracture test. Rev Sci Instrum 78:063903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Chen W, Lu F, Zhou B (2000) A quartz crystal imbedded split Hopkinson bar for soft materials. Exp Mech 40(1):1–6

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Weerasooriya T, Moy P, Casem D, Cheng M, Chen W (2006) A four point bending load technique for determination of dynamic fracture toughness for ceramics. J Am Ceram Soc 89(3):990–995

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Weerasooriya T, Moy P, Casem D, Cheng M, Chen W (2006) Fracture toughness for PMMA as a function of loading rate. In: Proceedings of the 2006 society of experimental mechanics annual conference

    Google Scholar 

  14. Syn C, Chen W (2008) Surface morphology effects on high-rate fracture of an aluminum epoxy interface. J Compos Mater 42:1639–1658

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Weerasooriya T, Gunnarsson CA, Jensen R, Chen W (2011) Strength and failure energy for adhesive interfaces as a function of loading rate. Dynamic behavior of materials, volume 1, conference proceedings of the society for experimental mechanics series 99

    Google Scholar 

  16. Casem D, Weerasooriya T, Moy P (2003) Acceleration compensation of quartz transducers embedded in a split Hopkinson pressure bar. In: Proceedings of the SEM Annual Conference on Experimental Mechanics, Charlotte

    Google Scholar 

  17. Casem D, Weerasooriya T, Moy P (2005) Inertial effects of quartz force transducers embedded in a split Hopkinson pressure bar. Exp Mech 45(4):368–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Ritchie R, Buehler M, Hansma P (2009) Plasticity and toughness in bone. Phys Today 62(6):41–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Tanabe Y, Tanner KE, Bonfield W (1998) Effect of loading rate on fracture toughness of bovine cortical bone. In: Proceedings of the 11th conference of the Eurpoean society of Biomechanics. J Biomech 31(Supplement 1): 121

    Google Scholar 

  20. Adharapurapu RR, Jiang F, Vecchio KS (2006) Dynamic fracture of bovine bone. Mater Sci Eng C 28(6):1325–1332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Currey J (1988) The effects of drying and re-wetting on some mechanical properties of cortical bone. J Biomech 21(5):439–441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kulin R, Jiang F, Vecchio K (2011) Effects of age and loading rate on equine cortical bone failure. J Mechan Behav Biomed Mater 4:57–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Jeff Gair of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) for assistance in the specimen fabrication process and Mr. Ronn Wade and his team at the Maryland State Anatomy Board (MSAB) for assistance in procuring the cadaveric donors for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Weapons and Materials Directorate, Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen, USA

    C. Allan Gunnarsson, Brett Sanborn, Mark Foster, Paul Moy & Tusit Weerasooriya

Authors
  1. C. Allan Gunnarsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Brett Sanborn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mark Foster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Paul Moy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Tusit Weerasooriya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Allan Gunnarsson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. North Dartmouth, 02747-2300, USA

    Vijay Chalivendra

  2. , Department of Mechanics of Materials, Sandia National Laboratories, East Avenue 7011, Livermore, 94551-0969, California, USA

    Bo Song

  3. U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, 94551-8227, USA

    Daniel Casem

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc.

About this paper

Cite this paper

Gunnarsson, C.A., Sanborn, B., Foster, M., Moy, P., Weerasooriya, T. (2013). Initiation Fracture Toughness of Human Cortical Bone as a Function of Loading Rate. In: Chalivendra, V., Song, B., Casem, D. (eds) Dynamic Behavior of Materials, Volume 1. Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4238-7_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4238-7_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-4237-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-4238-7

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation