Bone, tendons and

ligaments
Juliana Uribe
Bioengineering – UdeA
2023-2
 Learning Objectives Contents
At the end of this class, you will be able
to: Structure and mechanical
✏️ To know the relationship between properties of:
bone structure and function • Bone
• Ligaments
✏️ To know the biomechanical • Tendons
function of bone, ligaments and
tendons
Bone composition

http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/2/3/790/htm
Types of bones

http://droualb.faculty.mjc.edu/Course%20Materials/Elementary%20Anatomy%20and%20Physiology%2050/Lecture%20outlines/skeletal%20system%20I%20with%20figures.htm
Structure of bones
Long bones
Short, flat and irregular bones

• Epiphyses: internal spongy bone covered by

compact bone.
• External surface covered by the periosteum
• Internal surface lined by a connective tissue
called the endosteum.

• Consist of thin plates of periosteum-covered compact bone on the outside, and endosteum-covered spongy bone inside, which houses bone
marrow between the trabeculae.

http://classes.midlandstech.edu/carterp/Courses/bio210/chap06/lecture1.html
Mechanobiology: bone structural adaptation
Culmann’s graphical statics analysis of the patterns of Wolff's depiction of the trabecular
internal mechanical forces (stresses) in a Fairbairn alignment in the proximal femur.
crane. The curved column was under a distributed
vertical load from the top.

http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/jour/00/37/2/jacobs.htm
Mechanobiology: Wolff’s Law
Julius Wolff (1872): when loads are changed by trauma or change in activity, functional remodeling
reorients bone trabeculae so they align with the new principal stress axes

Remodeling is a continuous process:

The whole skeleton is changed each year.

http://classes.midlandstech.edu/carterp/Courses/bio210/chap06/lecture1.html

http://nuevamedicinaenergetica.blogspot.com.co/2012/05/ley-de-wolff-que-es.html
Example of bone adaptation Tennis professional

Healthy control subject

The arm bones of tennis players can be

20 % wider than their other arm

https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-exercise-does-to-your-bones

The forearms of a tennis professional

The forearms of a right-hander from the control (righthander) with a hypertrophy of the
group without significant differences in bone right arm (widening of 4.4 mm, lengthening
development between left and right arms. of 13 mm).
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Stimulation-of-Bone-Growth-Through-Sports-Krahl-Michaelis/f866550d285f50325f71437db3d5cb5745a406cd
Anisotropy and heterogeneity
Cortical Bone Trabecular Bone
Greater strength and tensile-compressive moduli along Small decreases in density have severe
the longitudinal direction. consequences for the load-bearing capacity
of trabecular bone.

• collagen influences toughness of bone

• mineral contributes to bone stiffness and
strength.
http://biomechanical.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/article.aspx?articleid=1404063
 Resistance in compression vs tension
Cortical Bone Trabecular Bone

Strength is greater in compression than in tension and

Cortical bone is more resistant to compression than to tension. is lowest in shear.
Resistance in compression: 1.5 - 9.3 MPa
Young's modulus: 10 MPa- 1,058 GPa
Density: 0.43 g/cm2

http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?pid=S1889-836X2013000200007&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en
Microdamage: deterioration in the tissue microstructure
Cortical Bone Trabecular Bone
Microdamage: debonding of the collagen–hydroxyapatite Microdamage increases with age.
composite.
Microdamage = decrease in modulus (E). Fracture toughness: strong dependence on
Microcrack accumulation increases exponentially with age density.
in cortical bone and is significantly higher in females than in
males. Trabecular fractures in an osteopenic woman’s
vertebra. The fractures could have resulted
from excessive local microdamage.

http://www.nature.com/bonekeyreports/2015/150318/bonekey201511/full/bonekey201511.html

http://www.medicographia.com/2010/07/fracture-healing-and-antiosteoporotic-treatments/
 Trabecular Bone
Influence of age Modulus and strength decrease with age (reduces 10% per
decade)
Apparent density decrease with age = anisotropy in
compressive strength also increases.
Cortical Bone
Age=increase in the porosity, hypermineralization,
microdamage accumulation, and changes in the
collagen network.
Strength reduces 2% per decade after 20 years.
Ultimate tensile strain decreases 10% per decade.
 Tendons and ligaments
Dense regular connective tissues.
Composition: cells (fibrocyte) and extracellular matrix composed of fibers (collagen I and elastin) and ground substance
(gelatinous material composed of glycoproteins, proteoglycans, and water.
Composition of normal rabbit medial collateral ligament

Ligaments

Tendons

http://www.physio-pedia.com/Tendon_Anatomy

The type 1 collagen fibers are responsible for the tensile

strength of the tendon whereas the proteoglycan are
responsible for the viscoelastic nature of the tendon.
Tendons and ligaments
Tendon Ligament
Union Muscle to bone Bone to bone
Transmit
Function Stabilize joints
muscle forces
Bending, shear,
Loads Tension
tension

Injuries = significant disability and pain.

Poor healing
Mechanical properties depends on Collagen I fibers in dense and
parallel arrays.
High tensile stiffness in the direction of the fiber orientation.
Stress–strain response: nonlinearity
Tendons and ligaments is initially nonlinear (the “toe region”), then enters a linear region, and finally
reduces in slope as the tissue yields and fails.
Injury
Rupture: tearing through the substance of the tissue

fr.dreamstime.com

http://eorthopod.com/tennis-elbow/
The Open Rehabilitation Journal, 2013, Volume 6

http://www.spinalphysio.co.uk/advice/foot-and-ankle-pain
 Summary
✓ Cortical bone is assumed Hookean elastic whereas tendon and ligament
exhibit viscoelastic properties.
✓ Cortical bone has greater mechanical properties than spongy bone.
✓ The microstructure of the bone composite makes the material response
anisotropic.
✓ The Wolff’s law describes how trabecular bone reorients when principal
stress axes change.
✓ Bone properties depend on: age, sex, composition, scale, activity, water
volume, density, strain rate, and test (tension, compression, shear,..).
Mechanical properties: elasticity
Ultimate strength, yield strength, Young’s modulus
Elastic: response independent of time

http://www.bu.edu/moss/mechanics-of-materials-strain/
 Mechanical properties: viscoelasticity
Typical features of the viscoelastic behavior of tendons and ligaments include hysteresis, stress
relaxation, and creep.
Hysteresis or energy dissipation – when tendon or ligament is loaded and
unloaded, the unloading curve will not follow the loading curve. The energy is
lost as heat (dashed area)
After 10 repetitions, the curve becomes reproducible.
 Viscoelasticity
Stress relaxation: constant strain is applied, and the
change in stress is measured over time. Relevant to a Creep: a constant stress is applied, and the change in strain
tendon immediately after muscle activation; the stress in is measured over time. Relevant for example in ACL (anterior
the tendon is initially high and relaxes over time as the cruciate ligament) reconstruction: after the graft is tensioned and
force generated by muscle for joint motion is transferred implanted, creep will lead to loss of tension in the graft over time.
to the bone.
Viscoelasticity
3 proposed models:

Linear spring = elastic behavior: σ = Eε

Dashpot = viscous behavior.

Stress is linearly related to strain rate: s(t) = he(t)

(η is the viscosity and e is the time rate of change of

strain at a time t).

Recommended videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9emsMcG8cc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csy3QwIg7p4
Maxwell model 𝜀(𝑡)
ሶ =
1
𝐸
𝜎ሶ 𝑡 +
1
𝜂
𝜎(t)

Creep response 𝜎 𝑡 = 𝜎0 Stress relaxation response 𝜀 𝑡 = 𝜀0

1 𝑡
𝜀 𝜎0 , 𝑡 = 𝜎0 1+ 𝜎 𝜀0 , 𝑡 = 𝐸𝑒 −𝑡/𝜏
𝐸 𝜏
𝜂
𝜏= : time constant of the material
𝐸

The stress completely relaxes out over time.

This is not characteristic of a viscoelastic solid, since (more realistic for a viscoelastic fluid rather than
we expect that the creep will reach an asymptotic level a viscoelastic solid).
after a certain time.
Kelvin-Voigt model 𝜎 𝑡 = 𝐸𝜀 𝑡 + 𝜂 𝜀ሶ 𝑡

Creep response 𝜎 𝑡 = 𝜎0 Stress relaxation response 𝜀 𝑡 = 𝜀0

𝜀 𝜎0 , 𝑡
1 𝜎 𝜀0 , 𝑡 = 𝜀0 (𝜂𝛿 𝑡 + 𝐸)
= 𝜎0 1 − 𝑒 −𝑡/𝜏
𝐸

No instantaneous elastic deformation is Instantaneous stress relaxation due to the presence of

possible due to the restraint of the dashpot the dashpot.
Mechanical properties
Whereas different tendons have different mechanical properties, they have the same ratio of ultimate
stress to elastic modulus (ultimate strain).

http://jap.physiology.org/content/115/1/43
Influence bone density and mineralization
Example of equations for bone as homogeneous and isotropic material:

𝜌 ≤ 1.2𝑔𝑐𝑚3 𝐸 = 2014𝜌2.5 𝐵𝑉 1.92

𝜎𝑢 = 794.33 𝛼 2.79
𝜈 = 0.2 𝑇𝑉

𝐵𝑉 2.58
𝜌 > 1.2𝑔𝑐𝑚3 𝐸 = 1763𝜌3.2 𝐸 = 84.37 𝛼 2.74
𝑇𝑉
𝜈 = 0.32
Bone volume fraction (BV/TV), alpha: ash fraction

With α=0.7 and (BV/TV)=0.95 (95% for cortical bone)

E=27.82GPa and σult = 266MPa

Cortical bone is 10 times more flexible than steel,

has similar σult BUT is 4 times lighter