TY - JOUR
T1 - Limitations of the continuum assumption in cancellous bone
AU - Harrigan, Timothy P.
AU - Jasty, Murali
AU - Mann, Robert W.
AU - Harris, William H.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements-Thirse searchw asp erformedin part at the Orthopedic Biomechanics Laboratory, Department of Orthopedics, Massachusetts General Hospital and in part at the Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Support for this research came from the Whitaker Professorship of Biomedical Engineering, a Whitaker Health Sciences Fund Fellowship, and the William H. Harris Foundation.
Copyright:
Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1988
Y1 - 1988
N2 - Most existing stress analyses of the skeleton which consider cancellous bone assume that it can be modelled as a continuum. In this paper we develop a criterion for the validity of this assumption. The limitations of the continuum assumption appear in two areas: near biologic interfaces, and in areas of large stress gradients. These limitations are explored using a probabilistic line scanning model for density measurement, resulting in an estimate of density accuracy as a function of line length which is experimentally verfied. Within three to five trabeculae of an interface, a continuum model is suspect. When results as predicted using continuum analyses vary by more than 20-30% over a distance spanning three to five trabeculae, the results are suspect.
AB - Most existing stress analyses of the skeleton which consider cancellous bone assume that it can be modelled as a continuum. In this paper we develop a criterion for the validity of this assumption. The limitations of the continuum assumption appear in two areas: near biologic interfaces, and in areas of large stress gradients. These limitations are explored using a probabilistic line scanning model for density measurement, resulting in an estimate of density accuracy as a function of line length which is experimentally verfied. Within three to five trabeculae of an interface, a continuum model is suspect. When results as predicted using continuum analyses vary by more than 20-30% over a distance spanning three to five trabeculae, the results are suspect.
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U2 - 10.1016/0021-9290(88)90257-6
DO - 10.1016/0021-9290(88)90257-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 3384825
AN - SCOPUS:0023923019
SN - 0021-9290
VL - 21
SP - 269
EP - 275
JO - Journal of Biomechanics
JF - Journal of Biomechanics
IS - 4
ER -