ELASTIC AND VISCOELASTIC PROPERTIES OF TRABECULAR BONE - DEPENDENCE ON STRUCTURE

For small amplitude mechanical excitation at frequencies from 100 to 3000Hz, the response of trabecular bone has no appreciable viscous component. Both fresh wet bone and defatted bone exhibit the same behavior, indicating that the fluid in the intertrabecular spaces has no effect on the dynamic mechanical behavior. Relative stiffness measurements on human trabecular bone correlate well with both trabecular contiguity and volume fraction bone. The correlation with contiguity indicates that plate-bending deformation is important in explaining the mechanical behavior of trabecular bone.