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Anisotropy of Young's modulus of bone

Nature volume 283, pages 106–107 (1980)Cite this article

Abstract

Bonfield and Grynpas1 have compared their experimental data for Young's modulus of elasticity versus the angle of orientation of the specimen to the long axis of bone with a theoretical curve predicted from a calculation for fibre reinforced materials proposed by Currey2. As a result of the poor agreement between the two curves they conclude “… an alternative model is required to account for the dependence of Young's modulus on orientation” (ref. 1). Such an alternative has been under development in my laboratory for the past 8 years (refs 3–7). It is a two-level hierarchical fibre-reinforced composite model which appears to provide a much more suitable description of the behaviour of bone as a fibre-reinforced composite material.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School and The Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115

    J. Lawrence Katz

  2. Center for Biomedical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, 12181

    J. Lawrence Katz

Authors
  1. J. Lawrence Katz
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Katz, J. Anisotropy of Young's modulus of bone. Nature 283, 106–107 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/283106a0

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