Morphology-based prediction of elastic properties of trabecular bone samples

Morphological characteristics of the trabecular structure, identified by micro-tomography, can be quantified by volume fraction and second-order fabric tensors. These parameters have been proved to be related to bone structural properties but the formulations so far developed between volume fraction, fabric and elastic properties are bone specific and the coefficients found for one bone are not directly applicable to other bones. In this work, a general relationship was determined that links volume fraction and Mean Intercept Length (MIL) to the trabecular structure stiffness as computed by means of numerical models on which compression tests are simulated. Preliminary results obtained for three pig and two rat bone structures show that, for the pooled data set, the model could predict approximately 99% of the variation of the numerically computed elastic moduli.