title: Microtensile measurements of single trabeculae stiffness in human femur.
abstract: In this paper, the authors perform microtensile tests of single trabeculae excised from a human femur head. One of the main issues of this work is to establish some experimental procedures for preparing and testing the specimens. The use of a well-characterized microtensile apparatus allows for a low intraspecimen dispersion of the measured stiffness. Tensile/compressive tests were chosen because they appear less sensitive to errors in the cross-sectional area measurements with respect to bending tests. By these considerations, some tensile/compressive tests of plate-like trabecular specimens have been carried out. Typical stiffness values are 74.2+/-0.7Nmm(-1) for tensile tests, and 58.9+/-0.6Nmm(-1) for compressive test. Another compressive test performed on a shorter specimen yielded a stiffness value of 148.3+/-5.3Nmm(-1). The maximum applied load was about 0.5N. Rough measurements of specimens sizes yielded a Young's modulus value ranging from 1.41 to 1.89GPa.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics, Mechanical and Thermal Measurements Laboratory, University of Rome La Sapienza, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabiano
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bini
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marinozzi
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marinozzi
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Patanè
mesh_terms: D019245:Compressive Strength; D004548:Elasticity; D005269:Femur / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D012016:Reference Values; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013718:Tensile Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology