Computer Applications

MSE 139L
SW2

Determining the mechanical properties of human and bovine femur

Objective:
To determine the Elastic and Shear Modulus as well as Poisson’s ratio of human and bovine
femur.
To determine which has a higher mechanical stiffness and poisson’s ratio ; Human or
bovine femur

Femur

Femur or the thigh bone is considered the longest bone in the human body.

Figure 1. Human Femur (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femur#/media/File:Femur_-

_anterior_view2.png)

Composition of Bone

Table 1.1 shows the usual composition of bovine and human bone. Ap or apatite is the
primary constituent of the bone
Elastic Properties

Although the bone is a viscoelastic material, we will consider the bone to be transverse
isotropic ( material is one with physical properties that are symmetric about an axis that is
normal to a plane of isotropy)
In order to determine the elastic and shear modulus as well as the poisson’s ratio of the
bone, we need data and matrix equations.

Based on Hooke’s Law,

Determining the stiffness and compliance stiffness Cij and Sij.

In terms of Compliance matrix Sij

In order the determine the elastic and shear modulus as well as the Poisson’s ratio, you
need to compute for the compliance coefficients first, then after getting the compliance
coefficients, you can substitute the values to the compliance matrix