A novel approach to assess post-yield energy dissipation of bone in tension

In this study, we proposed a novel approach to assess the energy dissipation during the post-yield deformation of bone. Based on the stress-strain behavior in an incremental and cyclic loading-unloading-reloading scheme in uniaxial tension, we partitioned the post-yield energy dissipation of bone into three distinct pathways: released elastic strain energy (U-er); irreversible energy (U-i); and hysteresis energy (U-h). Among them, U-er depends on the stiffness loss, U-i is the energy permanently consumed, and U-h reflects changes in the viscoelastic behavior of bone in the process of post-yield deformation. As an example, bone specimens from human cadaveric femurs of middle-aged and elderly donors were tested using this approach. The results of this study indicate that there exist age-related differences in post-yield energy dissipation and modulus degradation. These results implicate that this novel approach could detect the age-related differences in energy dissipation of bone and may aid in understanding the underlying mechanisms of such changes. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.