Damage accumulation of bovine bone under chaotic loading.

Abstract

A stress fracture is a common injury that plagues many individuals. Since there is not currently a method to predict if a stress fracture will develop, this pilot study was conducted to determine if either the Palmgren-Miner rule (PMR) or phase space warping (PSW) could be used as a prediction method for fatigue failure in bone tissue. In this study the Moon’s beam experimental set-up was used to perform fatigue tests on bovine bone specimens. Scanning electron microscopy was used to evaluate the fracture surface and identify the fracture type. It was found that the PMR tended to under predict the fatigue life of the specimens. The PSW method was able to successfully identify the various damage modes and may be a viable tool for predicting the fatigue life of bone. As such, PSW is worth further research. Many more tests need to be completed to obtain statistical significance.