Mechanical Behaviour of Trabecular Bone in Torsion: Effects of Bone Marrow and Strain Rate

Mechanical behaviour of trabecular bone has been studied under compressive and tensile loadings (1-3). In order to better understand the biomechanics of torsional fracture, it is important to know the mechanical behaviour of trabecular bone under torsional loading (4). Although torsion also simulate the in vivo loading condition to which the bone is exposed, compare to other loading conditions, it has received little attention in studying the mechanical behaviour of trabecular bone (3). The effects of strain rate and bone marrow on trabecular bone compressive properties have been shown in the literature (1,2). How these parameters change trabecular bone torsional properties still needs to be clarified. The objective of this investigation was to study the mechanical behaviour of trabecular bone under torsional loading, considering the effect of bone marrow and describe its shear strength and shear modulus as a function of apparent density and the applied strain rate.