Comparative mechanical properties of human bones

Abstract

In this work, three human bones, femur, tibia and fibula provided from amputation were studied under compressive loads. Tests have been done, shortly and several months after amputation, using a a hard metallic block connected to an Instron Machine. Three bones belonging to the same person showed different compressive strengths for both cases, immediately and longer times after amputation. It is seen that tibia is stronger than the other bones are and fibula is the weakest. Experiments also showed that there is large change in mechanical properties depending on the directions. Using classical metallographic technigues an attempt has been made to correlate the dependence of mechanical behavior of thes three bones on the size and density of the havers canals.