Human cancellous bone mechanical properties and penetrator geometry in nanoindentation tests

The goal of the study was to determine the influence of the penetrator geometry on the human cancellous bone mechanical properties in indentation tests. The aim of this research was also the assessment of the material properties of bone structures, having in mind the energy aspects of the curve obtained in the cycle: inelastic loading and elastic unloading.

The samples were resected from a femoral heads of patients qualified for a hip replacement surgery. During the Depth Sensing Indentation tests, hardness and elastic modulus of the cancellous bone tissue were measured using the spherical and Vickers penetrators. Measurements were made in a node and in a trabecula for each sample.

The analysis of the measurement results and the calculations of total energy, i.e., elastic and inelastic, and those of the parameters of hardness and elasticity made it possible to assess the influence of the penetrator geometry on the mechanical properties of bone structures at a microscopic level.

It was found, with respect to the methodology of indenta- tion, that without determining the shape of the penetrator and the site of the indentation, an objective assessment of the micro mechanical properties of the tested material is not possible.