Numerical Modeling of the Indentation of Cancellous Bone

There are many methods for direct assessment of the mechanical properties of bone tissue, such as tension, compression, and three-point bending tests. However, all these methods are used for testing the bone extracted from the body and usually specially treated, and therefore do not provide the characteristics necessary for clinical practice. Recently, however, indentation has become positioned as a procedure for clinical use with minimal invasiveness. In addition, with the help of microindentation, a local study of the affected areas of bone tissue is possible. At present, non-invasive methods for diagnosing bone properties are being actively developed, based on visualization of the structure of bone tissue, followed by importing the information obtained into computer modeling software systems. This paper presents a numerical model of the mechanical behavior of cancellous bone tissue as a poroelastic body. To test the model, the influence of such factors as the presence of fluid, loading with holding, loading rate, as well as the effect of permeability on the mechanical response of the bone tissue when the hard tip being penetrated was investigated.