Review about Elasticity and Plasticity

The elasticity of materials may shape the External loads and

resistance offered to the forces of muscles, bones and joints as
also may come from the pull of gravity, water resistance,
elasticity of materials, friction and manual resistance.
The ratio of mineral to collagen affects the mechanical
properties of bone. The collagen component is primarily
responsible for elasticity and deformation of bone after yield,
and that the hydroxyapatite contributes significantly to increased
stiffness.
Decreasing the amount of collagen in bone significantly
alters its post-yield behavior leading to lower displacement in
the plastic region, and lower fracture toughness (ability to
absorb energy before failure). Thus, decreasing the collagen
content results in increasing the mineral to collagen ratio.
That explains the increased fracture incidence of bone in the
elderly as a result of decreasing the collagen component and as a
consequence increasing the mineral/collagen ratio.
A value for stiffness is obtained by dividing the stress by the
strain. This value is called the modulus of elasticity (or Young's
modulus) (y) for normal loads (tension and compression).
Modulus of elasticity represents the stiffness of the material
within the elastic part of the stress-strain curve.

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There are two types of stiffness or modulus:
1- Normal modulus for normal loads, the ratio between the
normal stresses and normal strains measured in Pascal.
2- Shear modulus is analogues to the modulus of elasticity
but for the ratio between the shear stresses and shear
strains measured in Pascal.
*If the stress causes change in the volume, it is called Bulk's
modulus.
Yongus modulus = normal stress/ normal strain
Stress =force/ area (Pascal)
Strain = change of length / original length (ratio)
*Unit of Yongus modulus is Pascal
The higher the value of Modulus of elasticity, the stiffer the
Material.
The area under the elastic region of the stress-strain curve
represents the elastic strain energy or stored energy during
loading. If the load applied to the bone is continued
progressively, the outermost fibers of the material begin to yield
at a point called (yield point) (Y). (plastic) behavior of bone
Yield point:
is the point at which some damage of the fibers occurs and after
this point some permanent deformation of the bone could occur.
The behavior of bone after yield point changes which result in
nonelastic ( plastic) behavior of bone.
The second part of the stress-strain curve

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The second part of the curve indicates “nonelastic behavior”
or irreversible damage or plastic deformation, because in this
region when a load is released, the structure will not return to its
original shape and size.
If loading in the non elastic region continues the structure
reaches its ultimate point or ultimate strength point (U).
Ultimate strength point:
is a point of maximum strength after which bone failure or
fracture occurs.
(It is called an ultimate tensile strength if tensile stress is applied
and it is an ultimate compressive strength if compression is
applied).
The amount of post-yield deformation or plastic strain
(plasticity) depends on:
the elasticity of the bone, the amount of collagen fibers and
ability of these fibers to bear load till failure occurs.

a) If the post-yield deformation or plastic region (plasticity)

is small:
That means the material is brittle material and has a
limited amount of strain before failure.
Brittle material has a little amount of collagen fibers, so its
ultimate strength point and failure happened early with less
plastic deformation. The fracture is called brittle fracture.

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b) If the postyield deformation or plastic region (plasticity)
is large:
That means the material is ductile material and has a large
amount of strain before failure. Ductile material has more
elasticity with large amount of collagen fibers, so its ultimate
strength points and failure is more delayed than the brittle
material and has large plastic deformation.
The fracture of ductile material is called ductile fracture. So,
the type of the material and the manner of the fracture are
strongly related to post-yield deformation of the bone and as a
consequence to the amount of collagen fibers which are
responsible for elasticity.
The extensibility and elasticity of the elastic components are
valuable to the muscle in several ways:
 They tend to keep the muscle ready for contraction.
 They assure that muscle tension is produced and transmitted
smoothly during contraction.
 They assure that the contractile elements return to their
original (resting) positions when contraction is terminated.
 They may help prevent the passive overstretch of the
contractile elements when these elements are relaxed,
thereby diminishing the danger of muscle injury.

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 Typical Load-deformation curve. If a load is applied within
the elastic range of the structure (A to B on the curve) and is
then released, no permanent deformation occurs. If loading is
continued past the yield point (B) and into the structure's plastic
range (B to C on the curve) and the load is then released,
permanent deformation results. The amount of permanent
deformation that occurs if the structure is loaded to point D in
the plastic region and then unloaded is represented by the
distance between A and D'. If loading continues within the
plastic range, an ultimate failure point (C) is reached.

The area under the plastic region of the stress-strain curve

represents the plastic strain energy or absorbed energy during
loading. Summing both areas (under the elastic and plastic parts)
gives the total area under stress-strain curve, which refers to
total strain energy or fracture toughness of the bone.
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 Bone-like materials such as cortical bone, dentin and nacre
possess complex hierarchical structure, which gives rise to
superior mechanical performance. Despite numerous efforts
devoted to characterizing the mechanical behavior of such
materials, there does not exist a general continuum theory
describing the plastic deformation of these materials. The
present study provides a theoretical framework for the plasticity
of bone-like materials. Based on the theoretical framework, a
constitutive model is developed. The plastic flow of bone-like
materials is modeled by incorporating a shear-dominated
mechanism and a dilatation mechanism. We model the shear-
dominated mechanism by accounting for the cohesive-frictional
nature of bone-like materials, and for the dilatation mechanism,
the shear-induced plastic dilatation and the dilatation due to
hydrostatic tension are taken into account. Furthermore, the
constitutive model incorporates the strain-rate effect on plastic
deformation. By fitting the experimental data of uniaxial
compression of antler bone, parametric studies are performed
and the effect of model parameters on mechanical properties of
bone-like materials is discussed. In addition, numerical
simulations of cortical bone and dentin under compressive and
tensile loadings are carried out; it is found that the model
quantitatively captures pressure-sensitive plastic deformation
behavior of bone-like materials and a good agreement between
numerical simulation and experiment is achieved, substantiating

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that the continuum model developed in this study can be used to
describe the plastic properties of bone-like materials effectively.
The plastic deformation of the two-layer structure of dentin
subjected to tensile loading is also simulated, and the role of
protein-rich intratubular dentin is identified.