Correlation between impact strength and fracture toughness of PMMA-based bone cements

The thrust of the work involved determining the impact strength, IS (in kJ m(-2)) [using non-ASTM-sized Charpy-type specimens and an in-house impact tester] and fracture toughness, K-Ic (in MPa root m) [using ASTM-sized rectangular compact tension specimens] of Surgical Simplex(R) P and three variants of Palacos(R) R acrylic bone cements. The attractions and drawbacks of this method for determining IS are detailed. The best fit to the K-Ic and IS results yielded a power relationship K-Ic = 0.795(IS)(0.59). The usefulness and limitations of this relationship are detailed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.