Fracture Mechanics Essay

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TERM PAPER FRACTURE MECHANICS OF BONE PREPARED FOR MEMA 611 – ENGINEERING FRACTURE MECHANICS. Presented to: Prof. Vikram Kinra TAMU Prepared by: Mrudula Anne Texas A&M University Departments of Mechanical Engineering MEMA 611 28 April 2008 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 3 1.1 Introduction 4 1.2 Bone Biology 5 1.3 Fracture Mechanics 6 1.4 Mechanics of Bone 7 1.5 Fracture of bone and fatigue crack propagation 7 CONCLUSIONS 11 REFERENCES 12 ABSTRACT This paper is a review of all the available literature on bone mechanics. Bone is a complex material with a multiphase heterogeneous and anisotropic micro structure. Bone fracture analysis attempts at predicting the failure of musculoskeletal structures using several mechanisms and at different loading conditions. The hierarchical structure of bone spans from nano-scale to micro-scale with a composite design composed of nano sized material crystals in an organic matrix thus resulting in several toughening mechanisms. These mechanisms can stop, slow or deflect crack growth thus resulting in considerable amount of plastic deformation before the actual failure. Thus bone behaves non linearly before failure. Stress Intensity Factor has been used in many studies to characterize the mechanical property of bones but it does not account for the energy spent in plastic deformation before the actual fracture. Thus it has been found that Elastic Plastic Fracture Mechanics and J Integral approaches are more appropriate and they account for energy spent during both elastic and plastic deformation. Also many other factors like age, bone thickness, load direction and fatigue account for the failure of the bone. The present study analyses all these criterion and accounts towards incorporating the effect of all these factors on bone fracture and its prevention. 1.1 Introduction

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