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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Biomechanical Characterization of Human Soft Tissues Using Indentation and Tensile Testing
Published on: December 13, 2016
Mechanical properties and adaptations of some less familiar bony tissues
1Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5YW, United Kingdom. jdc1@york.ac.uk
Abstract:
This review attempts to show the bone community that there are many ways of being a 'bone', and that the range of mechanical properties of bone material is much greater than is conventionally thought to be the case. However the structure-function relationships have in many cases hardly moved beyond mere assertion. There is a pressing need for an examination of some material properties of a whole variety of bones, always using exactly the same testing method, for instance nanoindentation of wet material, so that firm comparisons can be made.
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