Dynamic tensile material properties of human pelvic cortical bone

IIn order for finite element models of the human body to predict pelvic injuries accurately, the appropriate material properties must be applied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to quantify the dynamic material properties of human pelvic cortical bone in tension. In order to accomplish this, a total of 20 tension coupon specimens were obtained from four regions of four human cadaver pelves: anterior ilium wing, posterior ilium wing, superior pubic ramus, and ischium body. For the anterior and posterior regions of the ilium wing, samples were taken in two orientations to investigate any direction dependence. A high-rate servo-hydraulic Material Testing System (MTS) with a custom slack adaptor was used to apply tension loads to failure at a constant loading rate of 0.5 strains/s. The horizontally oriented anterior ilium specimens were found to have a significantly larger ultimate stress (p=0.02), ultimate strain (p>0.01), and modulus (p=0.02) than the vertically oriented anterior ilium specimens. There were no significant differences in ultimate stress (p=0.27), ultimate strain (p=0.85), or modulus (p=0.87) found between horizontally oriented and vertically oriented posterior ilium specimens. However, additional testing should be conducted at specimen orientation 45 degree from the orientations used in the current study to further investigate the effect of specimen orientation on the posterior portion of the ilium wing. There were no significant differences in ultimate stress (p=0.79), ultimate strain (p=0.31), or modulus (p=0.15) found between the superior pubic ramus and ischium body specimens. However, the statistical comparison between superior pubic ramus and ischium body specimens was considered weak due to the limited samples and large variation between subjects.