title: Bone fracture characterization using the end notched flexure test.
abstract: A miniaturized version of the end notch flexure test was used in the context of pure mode II fracture characterization of bovine cortical bone. To overcome the difficulties intrinsic to crack length monitoring during its propagation an equivalent crack method was employed as data reduction scheme. The proposed method was validated numerically by means of a finite element analysis including a cohesive zone modeling and subsequently applied to experimental results to determine the fracture energy of bone under pure mode II loading. Finally, a cohesive law representative of fracture behavior of each specimen was determined employing an inverse method, considering a trapezoidal shape for the softening law. The consistency of the obtained results leads to the conclusion that the trapezoidal law is adequate to simulate fracture behavior of bone under mode II loading. The proposed testing setup and the employed data reduction scheme constitute powerful tools in which concerns fracture characterization of bone under pure mode II loading and can be viewed as the main outcomes of this work.
authors.affiliation: CITAB/UTAD, Departamento de Engenharias, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal. nunodou@gmail.com
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dourado
authors.affiliation: CITAB/UTAD, Departamento de Engenharias, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal; Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: F A M
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: M F S F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: de Moura
authors.affiliation: CITAB/UTAD, Departamento de Engenharias, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal.
authors.forename: J J L
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Morais
authors.affiliation: UTAD, Departamento de Ciências Veterinárias, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal.
authors.forename: M I R
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Dias
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D005269:Femur / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000473:pathology*; D008904:Miniaturization; D008954:Models, Biological